M Christine Delea's Blog, page 43
November 6, 2022
You Bring Me All the Things: Poetry Prompt
From Dictionary.com: Crush (noun) an intense but usually short-lived infatuation with someone.
Prompt Choice 1: Altogether, Dictionary.com has 15 definitions of the word "crush." Choose one or more of the definitions to explore and play with for your poem.
Prompt Choice 2: Read Alice N. Persons' fabulous poem posted on my blog today. Then write your own poem in which the speaker professes their crush on someone.
Prompt Choice 3: Write a poem that uses the word "crush" as well as words that rh...
Why I Have a Crush On You, UPS Man by Alice N. Persons
Why I Have a Crush On You, UPS Man
by Alice N. Persons
published in her book, Don't Be A Stranger
you bring me all the things I order
are never in a bad mood
always have a jaunty wave as you drive away
look good in your brown shorts
we have an ideal uncomplicated relationship
you’re like a cute boyfriend with great legs
who always brings the perfect person
(why, it’s just what I always wanted!)
and then is considerate enough to go away
oh, UPS Man, let’s hop in your clean brown truck and el...
November 2, 2022
The Mother Writes to the Murderer: A Letter by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Mother Writes to the Murderer: A Letter
byNaomi Shihab Nye
To you whose brain is a blunt fist
pushed deep inside your skull
whose eyes are empty bullets
whose mouth is a stone more speechless
than lost stones at the bottoms of rivers
who lives in a shrunken world where nothing blooms
and no promise is ever kept
To you who face I never saw but now see
everywhere the rest of my life
You don’t know where she hid her buttons
arranged in families by color or size
tissue-wrapped in an oatmeal...
October 30, 2022
Theme in Color: Poetry Prompt
Super simple instructions for your prompt this week!
Choose a holiday or a season.
Write about that time period with a focus on the color/s you associate with it.
Make sure children appear, even briefly, in your piece (as Sandburg does in today's blog
poem).
Have fun! Happy Halloween!
Theme in Yellow by Carl Sandburg
Theme in Yellow
by Carl Sandburg
I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.
October 26, 2022
The Survivor by Primo Levi
The Survivor
by Primo Levi
Once more he sees his companions' faces Livid in the first faint light, Gray with cement dust, Nebulous in the mist, Tinged with death in their uneasy sleep. At night, under the heavy burden Of their dreams, their jaws move, Chewing a non-existant turnip. “Stand back, leave me alone, submerged people, Go away. I haven't dispossessed anyone, Haven't usurped anyone's bread. No one died in my place. No one. Go back into your mist. It's not my fault if I li...
October 23, 2022
Weighty Ghosts: Poetry Prompt
You need to do two things before you start this prompt:
1. Read today's blog poem, "What Haunts Us" by Annie Phan
2. Listen to a song with a ghost in it. Suggested: "Weighty Ghost" by Wintersleep,
"Ghost" by Ella Henderson, "The Ghost in You" by The Psychedelic Furs, "Ghost
Train" by Summer Camp, "Ghost Lights" by Woodkid, "Ghost Towns" by Radical
Face, "Ghost Dancing" by Simple Minds, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr., "Cry
Like a Ghost" by Passion Pit, or "Ghost Riders in t...
What Haunts Us by Annie Phan
What Haunts Us
by Annie Phan
published in Rust & Moth, Autumn 2020
In the villages of my grandmother, they warn youof the child who beckonsyou to follow them deep into the forest,offers a heavy loaf of bread.You will choke on the stone in your throatand die hungrylike the little child.
In my hometown, they warn youof the woman in white who wailsfor her children along the arroyos,the ones she drowned by her own hand.La Llorona will pull at you to follow her.Maybe this ...
October 19, 2022
Plums by Gillian Clarke
Plums
by Gillian Clarke
When their time comes they fallwithout wind, without rain.They seep through the trees’ muslinin a slow fermentation.
Daily the low sun warms themin a late love that is sweeterthan summer. In bed at nightwe hear heartbeat of fruitfall.
The secretive slugs crawl hometo the burst honeys, are foundin the morning mouth on mouth,inseparable.
We spread patchwork counterpanesfor a clean catch. Baskets fill,never before such harvest,such a hunters’ moon burning
t...
October 16, 2022
To the Young Who Want to Die by Gwendolyn Brooks
To the Young Who Want to Die
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Sit down. Inhale. Exhale.
The gun will wait. The lake will wait.
The tall gall in the small seductive vial
will wait will wait:
will wait a week: will wait through April.
You do not have to die this certain day.
Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.
I assure you death will wait. Death has
a lot of time. Death can
attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is
just down the street; is most obliging neighbor;
can meet you any moment.
Y...
