M Christine Delea's Blog, page 39
February 8, 2023
History Lesson by Natasha Tretheway
History Lesson
by Natasha Tretheway
published in Domestic Work (2000, Graywolf Press)
I am four in this photograph, standing
on a wide strip of Mississippi beach,
my hands on the flowered hips
of a bright bikini. My toes dig in,
curl around wet sand. The sun cuts
the rippling Gulf in flashes with each
tidal rush. Minnows dart at my feet
glinting like switchblades. I am alone
except for my grandmother, other side
of the camera, telling me how to pose.
It is 1970, two y...
February 5, 2023
How It Happened by Chelsea Rathburn
How It Happened
by Chelsea Rathburn
published in New Ohio Review, 2011, republished at Verse Daily
I blame that little village in Spain,the one with the whitewashed houses in a crescent along the sea,a fleet of pastel fishing boats,and that celebrated coffee with brandy.
A sour wedge of apple lurkedat the bottom like a tea-leaf fortune.
Because we couldn’t afford the fishwe ate pizza with peaches and oreganoon the beach, the sun and breeze conspiring.
Seeing us there beneath the cl...
Can I Be Blamed?: Writing Prompt
We are going to use today's blog poem as the basis for this week's prompt; be sure to state after Chelsea Rathburn in between your title and your poem (or essay or story).
But before we get to that, a little commercial, which also ties to today's blog poem, How It Happened. This poem is a "love" poem, and I will be leading a workshop on "love" poems on February 19. This workshop is online, from 11:00-2:00, Pacific time. It is a pay-what-you-can workshop, with all fees going to the Portland, OR ...
February 1, 2023
If a Plane Crashed Exactly on the U.S.-Canadian Border by Jeff Mock
If a Plane Crashed Exactly on the U.S.-Canadian Border, in Which Country Would They Bury the Survivors?
by Jeff Mock
—for Margot
published in Sweet Lit, issue 9.2, 2016
After I crawled away from the wreckAnd smolder, I toured the dazed woods—In circles within circles, I’m sure.The descent was still in my stopped heart.I hungered and learned the hard wayWhich berries not to eat.I wintered on brown pine needlesIn a hollow in the roots of a black oakAnd let my bones knit. It feltGo...
January 29, 2023
What Irish Has Taught Me: Writing Prompt
Happy end of January, beginning of February week!
Last May, I started Duolingo, a language learning app. There are many languages available to learn, including a number I would like to study/study again (Spanish, Yiddish, Navaho, Italian, etc.), but I decided to start with Irish, the language of my paternal people.
The Irish language does things we do not do in American English: So many accent marks! Letter combinations such as "bhf" and "bp" and "mh"! Pronunciations that seem to have little t...
About Face by Alice Fulton
About Face
by Alice Fulton
published in her book, Sensual Math (1995)
Because life's too short to blush,
I keep my blood tucked in.
I won't be mortified
by what I drive or the flaccid
vivacity of my last dinner party.
I take my cue from statues posing only
in their shoulder pads of snow: all January
you can see them working on their granite tans.
That I woke at an ungainly hour,
stripped of the merchandise that clothed me,
distilled to pure suchness,
means not enough to anyone for me
to ...
January 25, 2023
Morning Prayer with Rat King by Kaveh Akbar
Morning Prayer with Rat King
by Kaveh Akbar
published in Poetry, March 2018
gravity accounts for the distance between weight
and mass it can also mean alarming importance human
bones are so full of gravity it’s hard for us to
swim I lost my glasses chasing a branch in the ocean
which is far too deep to dredge sometimes
I imagine the sea’s made of actual
tears this would explain the salt think of all
the disconsolate toddlers weeping right now into
the earth the tears ...
January 22, 2023
Daughter I am saying things to you by Amy Schmitz
Daughter I am saying things to you
by Amy Schmitz
published in Kestrel, Fall 2016
like sand seed storage
like always have something to sustain you, something
of substance beneath your surface
always stay within yourself
withdraw but do not wither
I came from nothing
I was fed on nothing I decorated my hair
with nothing so
I had to give you a pocket inside your graduation dress
I had to give you lockets nooks decades
I had to give you Dublin Paris Munich
(you took Dakar Addis Nair...
Catch a Falling Star: Writing Prompt
The comet known as C/2022 E3 (Z.T.F.) will be visible to us here on earth for the next few weeks. It will be closest to our planet on February 2nd. The following description is from The New York Times, in an article by Shannon Hall entitled "How to Watch the Green Comet During the New Moon."
"Comets are clumps of dust and frozen gases, sometimes described by astronomers
as “dirty snowballs.” Most are believed to originate from the distant, icy reaches of
the solar system where gravitation...
January 18, 2023
Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish
Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
by Kathy Fish
published in Jellyfish Review, 2017
A group of grandmothers is a tapestry. A group of toddlers, a jubilance (see also: a bewailing). A group of librarians is an enlightenment. A group of visual artists is a bioluminescence. A group of short story writers is a Flannery. A group of musicians is
— a band.
A resplendence of poets.
A beacon of scientists.
A raft of social workers.
A group of first responders is a valiance. A group of peac...
