January - 2023

Blog Post Archive

What Irish Has Taught Me: Writing Prompt

Jan 29
2 min

What Irish Has Taught Me: Writing Prompt

Happy end of January, beginning of February week! Last May, I started Duolingo, a language learning app. There are many languages available to learn, including a number I would like to study/study again (Spanish, Yiddish, Navaho, Italian, etc.), but I decided to start with Irish, the language of my paternal people. The Irish language does things we do not do in American English: So many accent marks! Letter combinations such as "bhf" and "bp" and "mh"! Pronunciations that see

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marychristinedelea

Jan 29
1 min

About Face by Alice Fulton

About Face by Alice Fulton published in her book, Sensual Math (1995) Because life's too short to blush, I keep my blood tucked in. I won't be mortified by what I drive or the flaccid vivacity of my last dinner party. I take my cue from statues posing only in their shoulder pads of snow: all January you can see them working on their granite tans. That I woke at an ungainly hour, stripped of the merchandise that clothed me, distilled to pure suchness, means not enough to anyon

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Morning Prayer with Rat King by Kaveh Akbar

marychristinedelea

Jan 25
1 min

Morning Prayer with Rat King by Kaveh Akbar

Morning Prayer with Rat King by Kaveh Akbar published in Poetry, March 2018 gravity accounts for the distance between weight and mass it can also mean alarming importance human bones are so full of gravity it’s hard for us to swim I lost my glasses chasing a branch in the ocean which is far too deep to dredge sometimes I imagine the sea’s made of actual tears this would explain the salt think of all the disconsolate toddlers weeping right now into the earth the

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Daughter I am saying things to you by Amy Schmitz

marychristinedelea

Jan 22
1 min

Daughter I am saying things to you by Amy Schmitz

Daughter I am saying things to you by Amy Schmitz published in Kestrel, Fall 2016 like sand seed storage like always have something to sustain you, something of substance beneath your surface always stay within yourself withdraw but do not wither I came from nothing I was fed on nothing I decorated my hair with nothing so I had to give you a pocket inside your graduation dress I had to give you lockets nooks decades I had to give you Dublin Paris Munich (you took Dakar Addis

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marychristinedelea

Jan 22
2 min

Catch a Falling Star: Writing Prompt

The comet known as C/2022 E3 (Z.T.F.) will be visible to us here on earth for the next few weeks. It will be closest to our planet on February 2nd. The following description is from The New York Times, in an article by Shannon Hall entitled "How to Watch the Green Comet During the New Moon." "Comets are clumps of dust and frozen gases, sometimes described by astronomers as “dirty snowballs.” Most are believed to originate from the distant, icy reaches of the solar system wher

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Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish

marychristinedelea

Jan 18
1 min

Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish

Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish published in Jellyfish Review, 2017 A group of grandmothers is a tapestry. A group of toddlers, a jubilance (see also: a bewailing). A group of librarians is an enlightenment. A group of visual artists is a bioluminescence. A group of short story writers is a Flannery. A group of musicians is — a band. A resplendence of poets. A beacon of scientists. A raft of social workers. A group of first responders is a valiance. A gr

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There Is a Street Named for Martin Luther King, Jr. In Every City by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

marychristinedelea

Jan 15
3 min

There Is a Street Named for Martin Luther King, Jr. In Every City by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

There Is a Street Named for Martin Luther King, Jr. In Every City by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib For Joe Bart especially the ones where blood sprints / from a black chest to color the earth / a darkened brown / the color of a black mother's skin / if she knew what it was to be alive / in the old south / if she knew what it was / to rock on the porch in the southern heat / until her babies made it home for dinner / if she made her skin a bed / for all of the sun's eager children /

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marychristinedelea

Jan 15
2 min

In Honor of MLK, Jr.: Writing Prompt

The contributions made to America by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King are many and they are monumental. The writings and speeches would have been more than enough; however, they also acted on their philosophy and ideas for society. They led or helped to lead marches and boycotts, traveled worldwide to meet with other activists, participated in demonstrations, and worked with a variety of organizations that focused on non-violence, civil rights, equality for all,

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Elegy with Apples, Pomegranates, Bees by Hayan Charara

marychristinedelea

Jan 11
2 min

Elegy with Apples, Pomegranates, Bees by Hayan Charara

Elegy with Apples, Pomegranates, Bees, Butterflies, Thorn Bushes, Oak, Pine, Warblers, Crows, Ants, and Worms by Hayan Charara published in Poem-a-Day on May 20, 2015, by the Academy of American Poets The trees alongside the fence bear fruit, the limbs and leaves speeches to you and me. They promise to give the world back to itself. The apple apologizes for those whose hearts bear too much zest for heaven, the pomegranate for the change that did not come soon enough. E

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marychristinedelea

Jan 8
2 min

Welcome to January: Writing Prompt

January, like a few of our other months, takes its name from a Roman god, in this case, Janus. He is depicted as having two faces in the front and the back of his head, which allows him to see both the past and the future. Janus is also associated with all types of thresholds (doors, archways, gates, etc.), as well as beginnings and endings; in other words, transitions of different kinds. It is very fitting, as we tend to view the New Year as a time to change ourselves and ou

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marychristinedelea

Jan 8
1 min

A Spine Moving by Karen Braucher

A Spine Moving by Karen Braucher for Dr. Jocelyn Kirnak published in Caveat Lector In this poem there will not be a looming, joking male chiropractor who leans down and cracks my twisted back as I scream. He will not tell me crazy stories about getting Cuban cigars for JFK as a young marine as he checks the length of my legs. Afterward, I will not float out of his office, completely without pain for two hours, seventeen minutes. There will not be hours. No thre

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For the Rest of the Trees by Christina Gessler

marychristinedelea

Jan 4
1 min

For the Rest of the Trees by Christina Gessler

For the Rest of the Trees by Christina Gessler published in Black Fork Review, 2021 When the firemen came and told us to pack what we could they offered us a helpful checklist: passport keys important medications and such but staring at the list I thought unkind things about whoever wrote it. Don’t they know? My passport expired three years ago, and all the things that matter I can’t pack. When the firemen left and the red cross came they offered us each a small

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marychristinedelea

Jan 1
2 min

Compass: Writing Prompt

Happy New Year! Are you ready to write a new poem/story/essay/journal entry each week this year? And if you want/need to write more, that's great--just look at the past prompts here for additional inspiration. Your first task for this prompt is to read today's blog poem. In it, the poet, Richard Widerkehr, uses his title to give us readers the setting. It has little to do with the poem itself, but it does tell us the speaker is outside, and that does set up the poem. There is

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At the South End of Lake Whatcom by Richard Widerkehr

marychristinedelea

Jan 1
1 min

At the South End of Lake Whatcom by Richard Widerkehr

At the South End of Lake Whatcom by Richard Widerkehr published in Sweet Tree Review, Winter 2017 At night the lake looks closer, and somehow it’s brighter than the sky, spread out like watery cloth. It’s hard to think of the speed of light or the way light’s supposed to bend around things. From where I stand by the still water, the stars don’t pulsate. They get bigger and bigger, wet as the grass at my feet.

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