M Christine Delea's Blog, page 41
December 25, 2022
Christmas, 1970 by Sandra M. Castillo
Christmas, 1970
by Sandra M. Castillo
We assemble the silver tree,
our translated lives,
its luminous branches,
numbered to fit into its body.
place its metallic roots
to decorate our first Christmas.
Mother finds herself
opening, closing the Red Cross box
she will carry into 1976
like an unwanted door prize,
a timepiece, a stubborn fact,
an emblem of exile measuring our days,
marked by the moment of our departure,
our lives no longer arranged.
Somewhere,
there is a photograph,
a Polaroid Mo...
December 21, 2022
Chanukah Lights Tonight by Steven Schneider
Chanukah Lights Tonight
by Steven Schneider
published in his 2000 book, “Prairie Air Show,” Talking River Publications
Our annual prairie Chanukah party—
latkes, kugel, cherry blintzes.
Friends arrive from nearby towns
and dance the twist to “Chanukah Lights Tonight,”
spin like a dreidel to a klezmer hit.
The candles flicker in the window.
Outside, ponderosa pines are tied in red bows.
If you squint,
the neighbors’ Christmas lights
look like the Omaha skyline.
The smell of oil is in the a...
December 18, 2022
Parents in Winter: Writing Prompt
Read today's blog poem, "Cherries in Winter," by Claudette Mork Sigg. Then, if you do not know this poem by heart, go read/re-read Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays," which you can find here.
Each of these poems has a parent doing seemingly small, ordinary tasks for their families. But both poets expertly make it known to us readers that these acts are anything but tiny.
Think back to your own childhood. What was something that one of your parents (or one of your guardians, grandparents, t...
Cherries in Winter by Claudette Mork Sigg
Cherries in Winter
by Claudette Mork Sigg
When the fruit came in, my mother went on binges.
She spent the night canning, naked,
in the bright hot kitchen working over the stove.
In the morning she emerged, sanctified
by her love affair with carnelian cherries,
spiced pears, apricots intoxicated in their own scent.
The kitchen clean, she stood in front of rows
of shining glass jars waiting
to be carried down to the basement.
When winter edged the lawns with frost, she filled
our bowls with fat...
December 14, 2022
Evening Meal by Tiffany Midge
Evening Meal
by Tiffany Midge
Mushrooms are seekers.They sweat in a pan of garlic and butter,fuss, bicker and toss—toughing it out like the rest of us.They furl, tucking into themselvesalong an arm of steam.They eye a slant of vinegar, the crushof lemon rising like a halved sunalong horizon of skillet.And all because they wantwhat we want:the dose of salt, the kiss, to be pouredonto a plate. They want praise,perhaps even dare, ask for love.
December 11, 2022
An Old Man Performs Alchemy on His Doorstep at Christmastime by Anna George Meek
An Old Man Performs Alchemy on His Doorstep at Christmastime by Anna George Meek
published in her book, Acts of Contortion (2002)
Cream of Tartar, commonly used to lift meringue and angel food cake, is actually made from crystallized fine wine.
After they stopped singing for him, the carolers became transparent in the dark,and he stepped into their emptiness to sayhe lost his wife last week, pleasesing again. Their voices filled with gold.Last week, his fedora nodded hello to me...
Stamps: Poetry Prompt
This week's prompt asks that you consider postage stamps.
Write a poem that focuses on stamps in some way, or at least mentions a stamp/stamps.
Your poem's speaker could be licking a stamp, decorating a tray with stamps, dating a philatelist, or mulling over the history of stamps, or any other number of things. Let your imagination stamp itself into your writing!
Information about stamps can be found in many places, both IRL and online, but you can start here: Smithsonian National Postal Mu...
December 7, 2022
Written on a Bathroom Wall in Rome by Gráinne Tobin
Written on a Bathroom Wall in Rome
by Gráinne Tobin
published in Banshee, Issue #3, Autumn/Winter 2016
This window is kept open: the catch sticks.Take care not to drop items into the courtyardfour storeys below, especially if awakenedat three a.m. when nightingalesrenew their legendary songduring the break in traffic before dawn—
if you must lean out, entranced,holding your mobile phone set to record,saving this wonder to your sim card,observe all reasonable precautions,but do not...
December 4, 2022
Best Worst: Poetry Prompt
One of my favorite classroom activities in my Composition classes was to put the students into small groups, then ask them--as a group--to come up with the most poorly written sentence they could come up with. We did this exercise in the middle of the semester, when they had learned enough about grammar, diction, and punctuation to know how to break rules. The students then put each group's sentences on the board, pointed out all the errors in the sentence, and we voted on the best (meaning wors...
Whir by Marjorie Power
Whir
by Marjorie Power
published in Peacock Journal, 2017
Preparing to market our last housewe sort mugs, linens, boots, books, hooks in little plastic drawers
nesting bowls and winter coats. We choose which furniture to sell – trestle table, fairy tale bed. We circle
through each carousel of tiny photos
meant to be seen projected large on a bleach-white screen
left at Goodwill before we moved here.Left with its partner, that machine whose whir meant all’s right with the world.
M...
