November - 2022

Blog Post Archive

Nov 30, 2022
1 min

To Memory, a Pantoum by Jacinta White

To Memory, a Pantoum by Jacinta White published in Change Seven Magazine, Issue 2.1 His favorite tie hangs on the back of the wicker kitchen chair He’s taken it off, and his wedding ring When asked He says they are now tight; he’s forgotten why he wears them He’s taken it off, and his wedding ring Slipping away what has been He says they are now tight; he’s forgotten why he wears them He wants to fly free like blackbirds Slipping away what has been He turns away He wants to f

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marychristinedelea

Nov 27, 2022
2 min

Sonnet Adjacent: Poetry Prompt

Being as we are in a very traditional time of year--the holidays can turn even the most relaxed person into a crazed traditionalist about cranberry sauce, when to open presents, who sits where for Chanukah dinners, etc.--it seems fitting to look at, and try, a very traditional and long-standing poetry form. Sonnets are one of the Western world's oldest poetry forms, and is the one most people who are not poets are most familiar with (after limericks!) . . . most people have a

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marychristinedelea

Nov 27, 2022
1 min

Butter by Elizabeth Alexander

Butter by Elizabeth Alexander published in her 1996 book, Body of Life My mother loves butter more than I do, more than anyone. She pulls chunks off the stick and eats it plain, explaining cream spun around into butter! Growing up we ate turkey cutlets sauteed in lemon and butter, butter and cheese on green noodles, butter melting in small pools in the hearts of Yorkshire puddings, butter better than gravy staining white rice yellow, butter glazing corn in slipping squares, b

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marychristinedelea

Nov 23, 2022
1 min

Turkeys by Mary Mack

Turkeys by Mary Mack published in her book, Breaking the Fever (Marsh Hawk Press) One November a week before Thanksgiving the Ohio river froze and my great uncles put on their coats and drove the turkeys across the ice to Rosiclare where they sold them for enough to buy my grandmother a Christmas doll with blue china eyes I like to think of the sound of two hundred turkey feet running across to Illinois on their way to the platter the scrape of their nails and my great uncles

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marychristinedelea

Nov 20, 2022
1 min

Did You Ever?: Poetry Prompt

This week's prompt very definitely lends itself to poems, essays, stories, one-act plays, performance art, and a lot of other things! Whether you go sad or happy, thoughtful or light, complicated or minimalistic, everyone/anyone should be able to get something from this prompt. Choose one of the following and write about it: a time you peed in a sink a time you slept outside or in a car, although you had not planned to a time you got a concussion a time you saved/attempted to

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When Giving Is All We Have by Alberto Ríos

marychristinedelea

Nov 20, 2022
1 min

When Giving Is All We Have by Alberto Ríos

When Giving Is All We Have by Alberto Ríos One river gives Its journey to the next. We give because someone gave to us. We give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us. We have been better for it, We have been wounded by it— Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet, Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails. Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too, But we read this b

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Conversation with a Fireman from Brooklyn by Tess Gallagher

marychristinedelea

Nov 16, 2022
1 min

Conversation with a Fireman from Brooklyn by Tess Gallagher

Conversation with a Fireman from Brooklyn by Tess Gallagher He offers, between planes, to buy me a drink. I’ve never talked to a fireman before, not one from Brooklyn anyway. Okay. Fine, I say. Somehow the subject is bound to come up, women firefighters, and since I’m a woman and he's a fireman, between the two of us, we know something about this subject. Already he’s telling me he doesn’t mind women firefighters, but what they look like after fighting a fire, well they lose

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

marychristinedelea

Nov 13, 2022
1 min

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

When My Gender is First Named Disorder by torrin a. greathouse published in The Indianapolis Review 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 metastasiz

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A Person, Place, or Thing: Poetry Prompt

marychristinedelea

Nov 13, 2022
1 min

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 pro

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marychristinedelea

Nov 9, 2022
1 min

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 eac

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You Bring Me All the Things: Poetry Prompt

marychristinedelea

Nov 6, 2022
1 min

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

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Why I Have a Crush On You, UPS Man by Alice N. Persons

marychristinedelea

Nov 6, 2022
1 min

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 bro

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The Mother Writes to the Murderer: A Letter by Naomi Shihab Nye

marychristinedelea

Nov 2, 2022
2 min

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-wrappe

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