M Christine Delea's Blog, page 44

When My Gender is First Named Disorder by torrin a. greathouse

When My Gender is First Named Disorder

by torrin a. greathouse

published in

Do they mean this as a synonym for disorganization? Machine with excess parts? If I called the parts of me I no longer want vestigial this would imply they were the vestige of a once-boy. Remnant of a never-was. Or perhaps they mean it as disruption in the neat arrangement of a system? Misplaced chromosome. Missing rib. Screw balded as a knuckle. First cell to metastasize. Our language ...

A Person, Place, or Thing: Poetry Prompt

In "When My Gender is First Named Disorder," torrin a. greathouse has created a poem filled with poetry-perfect nouns. They are specific, vivid, and plentiful--they are a huge part of what makes this poem so powerful.

For your prompt this week, take a few minutes and look around you. Write down ten nouns--things you see and/or things that looking around make you think of.

Now take 3-5 of the nouns from greathouse's poem and add those to your list.

For the last part of the prompt, choose one...

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry—We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.We were very tired, we were very merry—We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,From a dozen of each we had bought som...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...