October - 2021

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Oct 31, 2021
1 min

You Are There: Poetry Prompt

From 1953 to 1972, Walter Cronkite hosted a historical reenactment show which treated events such as the Boston Tea Party, The Burning of Rome, and Belle Starr's trial as if they were current news stories; journalists would interview participants as the event was occurring. I watched this show throughout the 1960s--it was geared towards kids and was educational and entertaining, and it did make its audience feel as if they were there watching Vesuvius erupt, seeing Susan B. A

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Indian Boarding School: The Runaways by Louise Erdrich

Christine Delea

Oct 31, 2021
1 min

Indian Boarding School: The Runaways by Louise Erdrich

Indian Boarding School: The Runaways by Louise Erdrich Home’s the place we head for in our sleep. Boxcars stumbling north in dreams don’t wait for us. We catch them on the run. The rails, old lacerations that we love, shoot parallel across the face and break just under Turtle Mountains. Riding scars you can’t get lost. Home is the place they cross. The lame guard strikes a match and makes the dark less tolerant. We watch through cracks in boards as the land starts rolling, ro

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To a Small, Sweet Calimyrna Fig by Paulann Petersen

Christine Delea

Oct 27, 2021
1 min

To a Small, Sweet Calimyrna Fig by Paulann Petersen

To a Small, Sweet Calimyrna Fig by Paulann Petersen published in Weber Half dried, half not. Skin puckered. Your stem-end curves directly into your golden-bronze body scabbed here and there with sugar so brash it oozes out. I do care a fig for you, soft pouch of sweetmeat that grew beside leaves a hundred times your size. To tear you open reveals a sticky bed of glistening seed. To bite, to chew, is to grind the sun’s fine grit against my teeth. To you, my own

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Christine Delea

Oct 24, 2021
1 min

Instructional Poetry: Poetry Prompt

Using today’s poem, “Protocol for Wings” as your inspiration, write a poem that provides tips, advice, and/or instructions for doing something. If the thing you are providing directions for cannot actually be done (at least by you), is something no one would actually want to do, or has no definitive manner in which to do it, so much the better. Some examples to help you out: sleeping like a cat, making a love potion, killing the monster in the closet, flying, forgiving your p

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Protocol for Wings by Rachel Landrum Crumble

Christine Delea

Oct 24, 2021
1 min

Protocol for Wings by Rachel Landrum Crumble

Protocol for Wings by Rachel Landrum Crumble published in Typishly on February 20, 2019 Don’t let their newfound weight sink your shoulders or snake your spine. Pinch your shoulder blades together, flatten your back, center inside a feathered frame. Don’t be ashamed—only the ones who were meant to will notice. The rest will look through you, as always, seeing only their own need. Brush them gently with your wings and they will remember something halcyon and gone, pushing past

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Christine Delea

Oct 20, 2021
1 min

"The Burly Fading One" by Robert Hayden

"The Burly Fading One" by Robert Hayden The burly fading one beside the engine, holding a lantern in his hand, is Uncle Jed--bullyboy of wintered recollections now. Coal miner, stevedore and railroad man, oh how he brawls and loves, a Bible over his headlong heart and no liquor on his breath. And when he dies, dies not in his own well-mastered bed but in the waters of the Johnstown flood, in wild attempt-- so sibling innuendoes all aver-- To save the jolly girl his wife had m

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Christine Delea

Oct 17, 2021
1 min

Answer Me This: Poetry Prompt

Write a poem that answers the following questions, or at least entertains the questions if no answers are forthcoming. You can be strict with yourself and answer them in the order asked, but that is not necessary. This can be a very short poem--just the answers--or you can ruminate and use stanzas or even sections. What is something you did that you still feel guilt or shame about? How do you know when you feel joy? Where in the world is a place you have visited (or lived) th

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Newly Discovered Portrait of My Mother with Ocotillo and Grapefruit by Donna Prinzmetal

Christine Delea

Oct 17, 2021
1 min

Newly Discovered Portrait of My Mother with Ocotillo and Grapefruit by Donna Prinzmetal

Newly Discovered Portrait of My Mother with Ocotillo and Grapefruit by Donna Prinzmetal published in The Midnight Oil, Volume 1 In the desert my young mother stands in profile next to her own shadow– porcelain neck, dark glamorous hair, red blossoms on the tips of ocotillo. Last night I was a barn owl, those long diagonal eye slits chiseled into my heart-shaped face. After years of collecting the soft moans of strangers, my mouth is hollow possessed by all the lost w

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Learning the City by Murders by Nancy Breen

Christine Delea

Oct 13, 2021
1 min

Learning the City by Murders by Nancy Breen

Learning the City by Murders by Nancy Breen I once knew the lay of the city by murders. My childhood was full of them, heavy aghast quotients, causing talk among bus drivers, bishops, and carry-out clerks. What newsprint maps and broadcasts didn’t teach me, I filled in by quizzing adults. Have I ever been there? How close is that to the park? Do we pass there on the way to Aunt Gin’s? I could give directions to Fairfax by explaining how to find the center grocery, the last pl

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Christine Delea

Oct 10, 2021
1 min

Chihuahua by Mary Winters

Chihuahua by Mary Winters She of the overlong kisses and fat arms is gone—though I loved her. I’ll miss her orange blossom scent. The silly things she crocheted for me. The way the phone excited her. The day she snuck me in Mass. Her son is a singer—a shouter! Calls me to watch the “doggy position” (which I made up with Toinette). On the street they laugh: “a rat on a leash”—they mistake me for a dachshund, I am fatter. They say let’s see the Mexican hat dance; aren’t you afr

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Christine Delea

Oct 10, 2021
2 min

Great First Line!: Poetry Prompt

Steal--and give credit, of course--to another writer! This poem (essay or piece of fiction) requires an epigraph. That's right--it is absolutely necessary. No cheating. Your epigraph will be: with a first line from "__________" by ________________. Set it in a bit and italicize. Then start your poem with one of the lines below, or use another one. Using someone else's inspiration is a great way to get inspired, and the variety below should provide something for everyone. Don’

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Getting Engaged in the Gun Room of the Lafayette Hotel by Kate Fox

Christine Delea

Oct 6, 2021
1 min

Getting Engaged in the Gun Room of the Lafayette Hotel by Kate Fox

Getting Engaged in the Gun Room of the Lafayette Hotel by Kate Fox Behind him, long rifles line the wall, and the smaller weapons—the Derringers, the Colt 45s, the Smiths and Wessons—are paired with their bark-tanned holsters in shadow boxes backed with scenes of the Old West. The ring box snaps open like a shot, and suddenly it is high noon at this table, where the world swiftly divides into black hats and white, “Howdy” and “How,” good and bad so far apart that not even a b

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In a City You Will Never Visit by Young Smith

Christine Delea

Oct 3, 2021
1 min

In a City You Will Never Visit by Young Smith

In a City You will Never Visit by Young Smith Tonight, in a city you will never visit, no one finds your absence strange. In that Kitchener or Jabalpur, that Shadrinsk or P’yongyang, no one waits for you to call, no one expects you at a party, no one searches for your face among a crowd of passerby. If an alto sings off key somewhere in that Yerevan or Belomorsk, that Gwangju or Kinshasa, no one is reminded of your voice. You are the subject of no rumors, whether counterfeit

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Christine Delea

Oct 3, 2021
1 min

Borders: Poetry Prompt

We are so used to “seeing” the world as a series of country borders, and then more borders inside those countries, signifying states, provinces, etc.. We all agree that those map lines mean something (or we do until we don't, which normally results in war). Some people challenge themselves to visit every country or state or capitol city, crossing borders. Closer to home, we have borders called walls, property lines, and neighborhoods. Farther from home, we have distinct unive

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