From a chart provided, choose first a Musical notation–mine was to play like “you are about to start crying,” but I added Rubato because I love it (giving me the chance to slow down and pick up the tempo to express my emotions!). Rubato allows performers to add a personal touch to the music, with emphasis on emotional expression.
Then, we were to choose a genre (I chose the Tango!) and finally, a few words from a list. Being a hopeless romantic, I selected moonlight & roses.
And, here’s my poem for today.
This Tango Between Us
this tango between us makes me feel like
I am about to start crying
or it could be the moonlight in rubato
as the big bright sphere floats behind the clouds
then surprises with radiance when dark puffs fall away
My Triolet on Day 1 asks “where does the time go?” and we only wish we had the answer to that question. But, time does move on and our mighty leader Maureen Thorson at NaPoWriMo gives us our prompt for day 3.
She writes: “Time keeps marching on, and so does Na/GloPoWriMo. And so, lo and behold, we find ourselves three days into our poem-a-day challenge. . . and here’s the optional prompt:
Following O’Hara, today we challenge you to write a poem that obliquely explains why you are a poet and not some other kind of artist – or, if you think of yourself as more of a musician or painter (or school bus driver or scuba diver or expert on medieval Maltese banking) – explain why you are that and not something else!
Check out the poem O’Hara wrote Why I Am Not a Painter as you muse upon why you are a poet (if you are) or another kind of artist as above. Now, this one is a HUGE challenge! We must do some deep diving within.
So, my poem turned out this way as I contemplated why I am not an accountant, but instead, a poet.
Grapefruit on the Table, watercolor by the poet
Why I am Not an Accountant
I look at grapefruit & sunflowers on the table &
see constellations of stars from the button-center blooms.
I think about what goes unsaid & see cars
in a junkyard that started with an old Buick in1956.
In the same way that Earth Day is everyday, poetry month is every month. Still, we do some extra special things in April, like attempt to write a poem a day and sometimes we use prompts from those who encourage us along the way!
Azaleas in bloom on April 1!
There are several sites who encourage us this way, and my favorite is: NaPoWriMo
Here’s what the guru behind NaPoWriMo had to say today on the start of the challenge:
Happy Tuesday, all, and Happy April 1. Today marks the start of another National/Global Poetry Writing Month!
“If it’s your first time joining us, the process is quite simple. Just write a poem every day during the month of April. 30 days means 30 poems. We’ll have an optional prompt every day to help you along, as well as a resource. We’ll also be featuring a participant each day. And if you’re interested in looking at other people’s poems, sharing links to your daily efforts, and/or cheering along, a great way to do that is by clicking on the title of each day’s post. That will take you to a page with a comment section for the day.” (Maureen)
I found a musical term that was new to me: the Rescue Opera, defined on the Naxos.com website like this: “The term ‘rescue opera’ has been used to describe operas such as Beethoven’s Fidelio, dealing with the subject of rescue, particularly, after 1789, from political victimisation.”
I think it an extraordinary time to write a poem about rescuing people from political victimisation. So, I have made note of it and will circle back around. In the meantime, I offer a triolet (one of my favorite forms because it is only 8 lines). Not to be fooled, however, (even tho it is April Fools Day) as it is not as simple as it seems with two refrains and two rhyme schemes. Here the Academy of American Poets defines the form for you: Triolet. It is a short poem with two refrains which gives it a kind of song-like rhythm and in fact is related to the rondeau.
So, because my time was short today on day 1, I’m sharing my Triolet and holding on to that first prompt for another day.
As we embark on the “unwritten pages of the new,” I draw on the optimism of the the writer, poet, activist, lecturer, artist, and ever industrious, Charlotte Perkins Gilman–who continues to inspire me today.
So much did she inspire me when I first discovered her large body of work that I spent another several decades collecting the poetry that was nearly inaccessible before my book (cover below). Now available at scattered US universities, such as Harvard, Columbia, Boston College, Library of Congress, as well as de la Sorbonne, The British Library, University of Oxford Library, and in Germany and Switzerland (check out Worldcatalog for more locations).
(Mellen Press, 2014)
So, dear readers, I hope you will join me in following Gilman’s inspiration. Her writings are full of poems and stories about beginning again and resolve.
“To keep my health!/To do my work!/To live!/To see to it I grow and gain and give!” (“Resolve”)
As we face the new opportunities and obstacles on our path, let’s adopt her resolve.
“Take hope once more, take heart, take hold” and “begin again”!
Jacquelyn Markham (January 3, 2025)
Dinosaur National Monument with the Milky Way galaxy photographed in the night sky. (Geologic ages explained.)
Like Solstices and Equinoxes, the cross quarter dates can vary a day or two, so you may have celebrated Lammas yesterday on August 1 or you may be celebrating today. Also, as with any holiday that has been celebrated since ancient times, there are so many variations. The cross quarter holidays fall between the change of seasons–fall, winter, spring, and summer, so, as we celebrate Lammas (or Lughnasa as it is also called), let us be grateful for the harvest.
What is important to me today is to celebrate the harvest and bread (lamas is loaf mass). I plan to break out the sourdough starter and put my hands in the dough. I have enjoyed the videos that Hendrik has shared on his channel Bread Code.
If it is just too hot to bake (with climate change and our hot planet earth)! Sit down with a cool drink and watch this vintage film with Meryl Streep that I watched with a dear friend in Long Beach, California now many decades ago.
If it’s too hot to bake, once you have finished watching Meryl Streep, learn about ways to help save the planet from burning up!
A golden orb weaver has moved into a corner of my front verandah and seems quite at home there. She looks as if she has no intentions of ever moving away. Though surely a gift from the universe, if any of you have ever seen this spider, you know that she can be a bit daunting!
According to one website, a group of writers and entymologists who created it out of a labor of love, the golden orb weaver is a “fascinating spider known for its intricate, large webs that shimmer like gold in the sunlight.”
Spider Woman Goddess, Susan Seddon Boulet
(By the way, if you visit, what’sthatbug.com, be sure to click on the ads which, they explain, help to “generate revenue to pay for hosting, expert entomologists, and bandwidth costs when visitors click on ads on our site.”)
So, alleviating any fears I may have of the amazing golden orb weaver, the information from these entomologists is of interest: “orbweaver spiders are generally non-threatening creatures that pose little risk to humans.” I have noticed that this very large spider is completely oblivious to my presence even when I am watering my porch plants nearby. Whatsthatbug.com continues its “interaction with humans” details: “Their venomous bites are usually harmless, and they exhibit docile behavior in their natural habitats.” For sure, I will not be putting my hand into the web and the Golden Orb Weaver is a very busy spider! She has no time for the likes of me. So, I turn to my usual approach, the symbolism of this “animal spirit.”
Jamie Sams & David Carson in The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals, a guide that accompanies my deck of medicine cards (Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM), says: “Spider is the female energy of the creative force that weaves the beautiful designs of life.. .If Spider has dropped into your cards (or life, my italics), she may be telling you to create, create, create.”
Spider Woman, popular culture notwithstanding, has been a powerful symbol in some American Indian cultures (Navaho & Hopi), for example, “Spider Woman represented wisdom and education,” according to encyclopedia.com. She is associated with crops, weaving and the goddess as “a symbol of the ability to weave and to create something from one’s own body, just as a spider makes silk” (encyclopedia.com).
So, what does my symbol tell me today? Create, create, create & remember the sheer wonder of our world!
Golden Orb Weaver Spider
And, dear readers, I will end with a poem from my book Peering Into the Iris: An Ancestral Journey, that tells a story of my ancestors & their weaving.
Poem & Image by poet, Jacquelyn Markham
Get in Touch
Jacquelyn is always available for readings and mentoring poets and writers. If you want to chat about poetry, books, or creativity, don’t hesitate to reach out, make a comment, or send an email to: jacquiepoet3@gmail.com
Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.”
Louisa May Alcott
photo by J. Markham
When I began to listen to poetry, it’s when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else.”
Joy Harjo
photo by J. Markham
Sometimes when I am writing, my head is in the clouds. And, I have been writing. Now, I may shift from words to images. These cloud images I took with my simple phone camera, but, I must also paint to really listen, to hear my soul. Below is detail from larger painting titled “Rushgatherers,” inspired by photos of Penn Center, St. Helena, SC (Face of an Island)
(Jacquelyn Markham, poet/painter)
“Rushgatherers,” acrylic painting by J. Markham
Jacquelyn Markham, poet & writer, author of Rainbow Warrior, Finishing Line Press (2023), Peering Into the Iris: An Ancestral Journey and China Baby, among other titles.
(Acrylic on stretched canvas, painted by the author on retreat at Penn Center, St. Helena, SC, ca. 2003)
The continuity of art reveals itself more each year. Images, colors, and themes recur in our writing, painting, photography, cooking, and gardening. So, by chance, when I cut the gladioli from my June garden and placed it in a vase, it gravitated to a painting on my wall. So many times, I have seen in nature like attracts like, for example, yellow butterflies light on yellow flowers.
But, back to the continuity of art. Even in cooking, for example, I have sour dough starter in my refrigerator right now, a baking theme from many years ago when sour dough enjoyed another popularity trend. So, when I was baking bread a week or so ago, I pulled out a poem titled “Bread-Baking” from my collection Lavender Blooms Turn Eggplant Purple (there’s that recurring color!) After some searching, I found the poem and revised it. I’ll share some lines with you here.
Thinking the bread-baking might restore
the home my vagabond dreams threaten,
I set the yeast & the flour in action.
Fingers knead the dough,
punch, pull, stretch until
finally, I shape a smooth loaf,
place it in the bowl,
cover with clean linen.
Time now for its rising.
I wonder as I rest,
steaming tea to my lips,
leaves rustling outside the window,
how yeast turns flour to bread &
what leaven would so wonderfully
transform the early days
into sustenance for the soul?
Jacquelyn Markham(excerpt Bread-Baking)
And, now, it’s June and in my region along with the stunning purple & wine gladioli, we enjoy the abundance of vegetable gardens. So, the other day, I relived another poem, from another time, “Today This Jar of Pickles is My Poem.” This poem became the title poem of a chapbook of the same name that placed as a finalist in a chapbook contest sponsored by what was then Armstrong State College in Savannah (now Georgia Southern University).
from the poem:
I struggle with domesticity
as I sterilize jars, clear
pack fresh cucumbers, garlic
sharp smelling dill
breathe steaming vinegar
vapor that unclouds the brain
Lids bounce in boiling water
I fish for one and quickly seal
each jar, this could be a poem
each jar, this a painting
each jar, I question
and justify
. . .
On gray winter days
sculptures in glass on my shelf
green peppers and cayennes twist in to form
zucchinis and crookneck yellows
wind, curve around each other
speckled beans, mosaics
I take down jar after jar
chill or heat the colors
shapes, lines
patterns that turn to food and are eaten
Jacquelyn Markham
(excerpt from “Today This Jar of Pickles is My Poem”)
So, today, look around you. Do you see the continuity of art around you? And, the continuity of your life?
Jacquelyn~ aka Poet Voice
“Deep Purple,” a song that keeps coming back around
What a wonderful time I have had with Maureen Thorson’s final prompt for 2024 poem-a-day challenge: “And now for our last prompt of the year – optional, as always! Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend. . .” Partly because I have revisited one of my all time favorite poets, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), modern American poet. Partly because I have learned more about Heliodora, the first known woman astrologer, ca. 2nd or 3rd century.
Poet Voice 