Today is the final day of the April poem-a-day challenge & I so enjoy participating with the poets on Maureen Thorson’s site: Napowrimo.net though we often call it Na/Glopowrimo as it is not only national, but global! What a joy to write and share poems with poets all over the world. It’s fast and furioius, but we can always return to the site and revisit some of the fantastic resources Maureen provides. I am not sure I was able to write with a “dispassionate tone” today, but I tried to stay somewhat faithful to the prompt as described below:
“And now, here’s this year’s final (optional) prompt. In his poem, “Angels,” Russell Edson speaks of these spiritual warrior-messenger-guardians as if they were a type of endangered animal. Brief as it is, the poem is disorienting in its use of flattened diction, odd similes, and elliptical statements. Today, try writing your own poem that discusses a real or mythical being or profession (demons, firefighters, demonic firefighters) with the same sort of musing yet dispassionate tone.” https://www.napowrimo.net/day-thirty-12/
Powerscourt mansion garden near Enniskerry, Ireland, photo credit: David Matthew Lyons
Thank you to all the poets we participated in the poem-a-day challenge and to Maureen for her fun & inspiring prompts. What a joy to share words, ideas, and images with poets across the globe.
How is your poem-a-day challenge going (if you have chosen to participate)? If not, I hope you are enjoying reading the work of so many dedicated poets!
I have been writing everyday, but not blogging everyday. Today, I’ve decided to post my poem in an image because it got a little long. The prompt asks us to compare details from today with the past. To see all of the prompt, look below for Maureen’s prompt for Day 29 from Napowrimo or Na/glopowrimo (National/global poetry writing month!)
“Finally, here’s today’s prompt (optional, as always). In “After Turning the Clocks Back,” Jennifer Moxley links present with past, using a few well-placed details to invoke both a sense of the daily “now” and a nostalgic sense of the speaker’s long-ago life. In your poem today, similarly, compare your everyday present life with your past self, using specific details to conjure aspects of your past and present in the reader’s mind.” (napowrimo.net)
–a bluebird in the rain & My penultimate poem offering for Day 29:
Note: My blog is most active during April’s Poem-a-day Challenge, but I hope you will visit any time of year.
Also, please check out my writing mentoring service here: Moonflower Mentoring. Are you interested in a creativity mentor to get you over a dry spell? Or, one to assist with craft or to work one-on-one on a specific piece of writing? If so, please email me for more info: jacquiepoet3@gmail.com.
An antidote to the news, today’s prompt is quite fun! I responded to the Day 8 prompt from Napowrimo.net which is pretty simple: “In your poem for today, use a simple phrase repeatedly, and then make statements that invert or contradict that phrase.”
I suppose you may be thinking that Poet Voice indulged in a rather long sabattical after we buttoned up April 2025 Poem-a-day challenge. Though I haven’t been totally resting on my laurels, I have taken a bit of a break from blogging—longer than I had really intended! I haven’t given up my creative life, however, and even wrote some short verses, one that I have shared with you now, “Queen of the Night.” Of course, I was flower-dedicated and watched the night long blooming of the Epiphyllum oxypetalum or commonly called “Queen of the Night.”
Remember that Vision Plan we started two years ago? With the Mercury Retrograde return, it seems appropriate to revisit our Vision Plans.
Now, as we are nearing that cross quarter point between summer and fall, often called Lammas (in the northern/western hemisphere of the US), there is still plenty of hot weather throughout many parts of the world. I don’t know about you, but climate change is never far from my mind! Despite the heat, however, we can focus on our creativity if we are one of those folks lucky enough to dodge the heat inside an air conditioned home. So, let’s return to our Vision Plan! Also, may I ask that you focus on world peace and kindness every day, so our collective energy can manifest them in our own lives and beyond.
Thank you! And, before we wrap-up July and spin around August, let us take time to check the short-term goals we set for ourselves some time ago in our personal Vision Plans. We are still experiencing Mercury Retrograde throughout the middle of August, so it is a good time to **revisit** our plans.
To refresh our memories, below is a quick review and step-by-step process of creating a Vision Plan:
Step 1: Write your vision statement. Your vision statement is futuristic and should inspire you. Mine is only three sentences long and I’ve written it in gold ink at the top of a new page in my journal.
Step 2: Next, write your mission statement which differs from but grows out of your vision statement. There are many resources on this process of writing a mission statement (search Strategic Plan) but think simply. What is it you do or want to do everyday? Focus on the present. Keep it brief.
Step 3: Now, short term goals that fit within your vision and your mission. I settled on five, but worked through several pages of writing to see the difference in the goals and the tasks it would take to accomplish them. You could focus on three, or more if you are energetic, but I suggest no more than seven. Can some of the short term goals be moved to long term goals, for example?
Step 4: The details, the tasks, the baby steps! What tasks will be needed to meet these goals? (You can break up tasks to smaller baby steps, too.)
Step 5:Create a timeline and in January 2026, review and revise for the new year!
Now that you have carved out the details of your Vision Plan, enjoy the full moon in Aquarius (which is also Lunar Lammas). Collaborate and network while the moon is full in Aquarius. And always, always, celebrate the fullness and beauty of the full moon and your own accomplishments coming to fruition over time, not unlike the Queen of the Night!
And remember to celebrate your vision plan for the creativity in your life!
Like a train a track that stretches ahead, the days blur by and we are now on Day 9 of the April poem-a-day challenge, chugging away toward the middle of the month. Below is the optional prompt from Maureen at the NaPoWriMo poetry site. This prompt is all about Rhyme & Sound which brought to my mind, a train ride.
“And here’s our optional prompt for the day. Like music, poetry offers us a way to play with and experience sound. This can be through meter, rhyme, varying line lengths, assonance, alliteration, and other techniques that call attention not just to the meaning of words, but the way they echo and resonate against each other. For a look at some of these sound devices in action, read Robert Hillyer’s poem, Fog. It uses both rhyme and uneven line lengths to create a slow, off-kilter rhythm that heightens the poem’s overall ominousness. Today we’d like to challenge you to try writing a poem of your own that uses rhyme, but without adhering to specific line lengths. For extra credit, reference a very specific sound, like the buoy in Hillyer’s poem.”Maureen Thorson
“Cinnamon” is a poem I wrote in response to Day 6 prompt of Poem-a-Day 2025 (30 Poems in 30 days). Check it out!
Now, dear readers, how did I come up with this odd poem? Why yes, it was the day 6 prompt that gave us so many choices and directions to go by . Please, visit NaPoWriMo to get all details, but basically, you choose a number from the chart which leads to a taste that becomes the title and two more words to work in. In my case, wheeze and golden were the words.
The poem starts out lovely with a sweet-smelling scent, but alas, like so many wonderful things in our modern world, the spice turned toxic. Not all, of course, but be mindful! Still, cinnamon has some health benefits according to some reports, like these claims from Cleveland Clinic.
And then, we may want some retro music to accompany our latte, so here it is! Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.”
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
(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
Hello poets & lovers of poetry! The penultimate day of our April 2024 poem-a-day challenge has arrived! For this day 29, the prompt asked us as to use as inspiration one of the ten most-used words of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (really!) in her song lyrics. Her new album Tortured Poets Department hopefully doesn’t represent how we poets feel on Day 29 of the challenge, but we could use some of her publicity!
See the complete prompt from Maureen Thorson’s Napowrimo.net below the poem for more details. I must confess that my use of swift, swiftness, and swiftly was strictly coincidental! After all, I was writing about Mercury!
I envy you your swiftness
If only I were more like you, Mercury.
If only I were more mercurial—in the good sense,
quick-witted, sprightly, clever & ingenious.
Not temperamental, fickle or inconstant,
but swift with missives from the gods!
You wear sandals & a cap with wings
to propel you with a speed that others envy.
Like the planet that bears your name,
you travel lightning fast even escaping
Copernicus by traveling swiftly in the dark!
Not like a tree, rooted in earth,
not like a river running deep & slow,
not like me. I crawl like a caterpillar, a snail,
a turtle from the sea. My mood sets in like
an overcast day when clouds don’t lift
until the sun burns through near sunset.
Oh, Mercury, though you be the god of tricksters
and thievery, and though the slow and steady
win the race, I envy you your swiftness!
Jacquelyn Markham 4/29/2024
The Prompt:
From Napowrimo.net: “And now for our optional prompt. If you’ve been paying attention to pop-music news over the past couple of weeks, you may know that Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of this occasion, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. We hope you don’t find this too torturous yourself, but we’d like to challenge you to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title.”
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.
Poet Voice 