Tag: dailyprompt

Day 22 The Moon is Sister to the Sea              PAD 2023

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Ocean Moon, photo by the poet

The Moon is Sister to the Sea

after Emily Dickinson’s “The Moon is Distant from the Sea”

The moon is sister to the sea,

with amber hands she leads the

seeming docile sea along appointed

sands. The sea never

misses a degree, obedient

to her sister moon’s eye, she

comes just so far toward the town &

just so far goes away.

Oh, yours, the amber moon &

mine, the distant sea, obedient

to the least command

the seas impose on you & me.

Hello readers! Have I stolen Emily Dickinson’s poem? No, today’s prompt requires it. You will see the prompt below as well as the original poem. In the original by Dickinson, she made the sea male and the moon female. Although both entities in nature are without a specific gender, I couldn’t imagine the sea as male, so I revised it to make the moon and sea sisters! (poetic license!) Jacquelyn

“Today’s prompt. . .is a variation on a teaching exercise that the poet Anne Boyer uses with students studying the work of Emily Dickinson. As you may know, although Dickinson is now considered one of the most original and finest poets the United States has produced, she was not recognized in her own time. One reason her poems took a while to gain a favorable reception is their slippery, dash-filled lines. Those dashes baffled her readers so much that the 1924 edition of her complete poems replaced some with commas, and did away with others completely. Today’s exercise asks you to do something similar, but in the interests of creativity, rather than ill-conceived “correction.” Find an Emily Dickinson poem – preferably one you’ve never previously read – and take out all the dashes and line breaks. Make it just one big block of prose. Now, rebreak the lines. Add words where you want. Take out some words. Make your own poem out of it!”

The Moon is distant from the Sea – (387)

By Emily Dickinson

The Moon is distant from the Sea –

And yet, with Amber Hands –

She leads Him – docile as a Boy –

Along appointed Sands –

He never misses a Degree –

Obedient to Her eye –

He comes just so far – toward the Town –

Just so far – goes away –

Oh, Signor, Thine, the Amber Hand –

And mine – the distant Sea –

Obedient to the least command

Thine eye impose on me –

Day 21 Courage         PAD 2023

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Storm, photo by poet

From the list, I chose “courage” because we all need so much of it everyday! Let’s hear it poets! Does it take courage to write a poem-a-day in April?

Prompt for Day 21 from Napowrimo: “Last but not least, here’s today’s (optional) prompt. Begin by reading Sarah Gambito’s poem “Grace.” Now, choose an abstract noun from the list . . . , and then use that as the title for a poem that contains very short lines, and at least one invented word.”

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Day 20 Found by a Future Scientist PAD 2023

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To appease my grumbling muse, I decided to delve into a stanza pattern to write today’s poem.  The “Terza Rima” (a poem with interweaving rhyming triplets or tercets) is a form that poets have used for long poems or as a stand alone short 3 line poem.  One famous example of Terza Rima with three tercets and a final couplet is Shelley’s of “Ode to the West Wind.” It has a specific rhyme pattern that goes like this: 1,2,1; 2,3,2; 3,4,3;4,5,4 and the couplet uses the rhyme sound from the central line of the preceding triplet, so it goes 5, 5.

Shelley’s poem has five sections, however, and you may want to check it out here.

Below is my poem, “Found by a Future Scientist,” that responds to Napowrimo’s prompt “Have you ever heard someone wonder what future archaeologists, whether human or from alien civilization, will make of us? Today, I’d like to challenge you to answer that question in poetic form, exploring a particular object or place from the point of view of some far-off, future scientist? The object or site of study could be anything from a “World’s Best Grandpa” coffee mug to a Pizza Hut, from a Pokemon poster to a cellphone.”

Found by a Future Scientist

What thing is this,

a pendulum moving to and fro

in perfect rhythm, yet tedious?

The weighted piece—a rod of sorts—must go

ticking, tocking, ticking, tocking torture.

My science sees no purpose in this show.

Back and forth ticking I must endure

as I study this strange artifact.

In this task, my expertise looks amateur.

Yet, after hours, days, months—to be exact,

I warm to this past piece as treasured bric-a-brac.

            Jacquelyn Markham (4/20/2023)

Day 18 Abecedarian-by the alphabet PAD 2023

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I definitely got carried away with this poem as my idea took me on a long ride. I used gems in alphabetical order and then had to figure out a way to make a poem out of it, simply titled “Gems.”

And here’s the prompt: “Today, I’d like to challenge you to write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alphabetical order, or you could write one in which each line begins with a word that follows the order of the alphabet. This is a prompt that lends itself well to a certain playfulness. Need some examples? Try this poem by Jessica Greenbaum, this one by Howard Nemerov or this one by John Bosworth.”








			


    



			
				


 	

					
Day 16 erasure/negation poem   PAD 2023
		
				

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Affairs of the Heart Claims & Warnings





Gypsy Cat fortune teller (credit JohnLund.com)





The Academy of American Poets defines “Erasure poetry” as “a form of found poetry wherein a poet takes an existing text and erases, blacks out, or otherwise obscures a large portion of the text, creating a wholly new work from what remains.” (poets.org)





It seems to me that erasure poem could be considered a form of “negation”–the challenge of today’s prompt explained by Maureeen at Napowrimo:  “Today’s prompt is a poem of negation – yes (or maybe, no), I challenge you to write a poem that involves describing something in terms of what it is not, or not like.”





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Day 14 Parody or Satire Rewrite    PAD 2023
		
				

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poets.org)





Today’s prompt is another rewrite.  Thorson says: “And now for our (optional) daily prompt. Hopefully, this one will provide you with a bit of Friday fun. Today, I challenge you to write a parody or satire based on a famous poem. It can be long or short, rhymed or not. But take a favorite (or unfavorite) poem of the past, and see if you can’t re-write it on humorous, mocking, or sharp-witted lines. You can use your poem to make fun of the original (in the vein of a parody), or turn the form and manner of the original into a vehicle for making points about something else (more of a satire – though the dividing lines get rather confused and thin at times).”





My attempt at the prompt on day 14 has an interesting twist. The poem is not so famous, but the poet is—Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  In 1856, Barrett Browning published Aurora Leigh, a “novel in verse” that follows the title character, an aspiring poet, through several pot-boiling twists. In one revealing passage, Aurora’s cousin and would-be suitor, Romney Leigh, summarizes his attitude toward her and women writers of that era in a passage that I quote below. I rewrote that passage.





So, I rewrote the poem from a feminist perspective and titled it “Woman Poet Extraordinaire”





Woman Poet Extraordinaire





Therefore, this same world





that you understand and influence





with your strength and courage will





always be changed by you and  





women of the world. Women brave,





strong, and at work in the world





will always change it by their very presence.





You are more than a doting mother and a wife!





You are more than a sublime Madonna ,





a seductress, or an enduring saint.





You are divine!





You are woman!





You are leader, artist, writer,





inventor, healer, builder.  





You are poet extraordinaire!





            Jacquelyn Markham (4/14/2023)





Here’s the original in which her cousin addresses her, knowing of her aspirations to be a poet:





Therefore, this same world
Uncomprehended by you must remain
Uninfluenced by you. Women as you are,
Mere women, personal and passionate,
You give us doting mothers, and chaste wives.
Sublime Madonnas, and enduring saints!
We get no Christ from you,—and verily
We shall not get a poet, in my mind.





The Poetry Foundation explains: “As starkly sexist as the above passage might seem to contemporary readers, the idea that women and female experience were incompatible with poetry continued to hold sway for the next 100 years, until second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s brought a political and cultural watershed. Women fought for equal treatment and civil rights; meanwhile, women poets created structures to support one another while profoundly changing poetry itself.” (www.poetryfoundation.org)





We only have to look at the last two United States Poet Laureates to see “women poets extraordinaire”! Currently, Ada Limon and former, Joy Harjo.  Two of my favorite poets. 


			


    



			
				


 	

					
Day 12 Dear Poem    PAD 2023
		
				

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I once wrote dialogues between the poet and the poem.  This prompt is a little like that kind of dialogue, but even a bit more complicated.  Here it is from Maureen at Napowrimo: “I challenge you to write a poem that addresses itself or some aspect of itself (i.e., “Dear Poem,” or “what are my quatrains up to?”; “Couplet, come with me . . .”) This might seem a little “meta” at first, or even kind of cheesy. But it can be a great way of interrogating (or at least, asking polite questions) of your own writing process and the motivations you have for writing, and the motivations you ascribe to your readers.”





So here we go. I could go on forever. . . 










Whitehall Plantation Oak, painting by poet





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Day 7 List Poem PAD 2023
		
				

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Legacy Collage, by Jacquelyn Markham





Today is day 7 of the poem-a-day challenge and I’m following Napowrimo (National Poetry Writing Month), the site developed by Maureen Thorson, here’s her prompt for today, Day 7.





A summary of Maureen’s prompt: “Start by reading James Tate’s poem “The List of Famous Hats.”  Now, write a poem that plays with the idea of a list. Tate’s poem is a list that isn’t – he never gets beyond the first entry. You could try to write a such a non-list, but a couple of other ideas would be to create a list of ingredients, or a list of entries in an index. A self-portrait (or a portrait of someone close to you) in the form of a such a list could be very funny. Another way into this prompt might be a list of instructions.”





Well, James Tate’s list of hats didn’t go far, but mine did as I wrote about my Grandma’s hats and as you see, she had many! This is a revision of an earlier version of the poem, and I have accompanied it with one of my “Legacy Collages” that features that navy blue hat with flowers and under the hat (not visible because it’s under the hat) is the story from the newspaper when her husband disappeared. What a story/legend it was is!










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Day 5 Hyena PAD 2023
		
				

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Laughing Hyena
Image courtesy of aboutwildanimals.com





For day 5, Maureen’s prompt challenged us to “write a poem in which laughter comes at what might otherwise seem an inappropriate moment.” Read more about the prompt here.  Don’t miss all the great poetry resources she provides and the many poets who are taking on this challenge of 30 poems in 30 days!





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Day 3 Opposite Poem PAD 2023
		
				

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Hello poets and those who love poetry! 





Thank you for reading. This Day 3 prompt from Maureen Thorson at NaPoWriMo is linked here, but the short version is to take a “shortish” poem and rewrite it by using the opposite word for every word in the poem. It is not as easy as it sounds, but I sort of like this poem I wrote with that crazy prompt: “You aren’t Somebody! Who am I?” Of course, the famous poem by Emily Dickinson, “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” was the inspiration and I included it below. 






Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Image courtesy of poets.org











You aren’t Somebody! Who am I?





You aren’t Somebody! Who am I?





Aren’t you Somebody either?





Then there is not an only you!





Tell everyone! We won’t advertise—I don’t know!





How lovely—not to be—Nobody!





How private—like a bird—





Not to tell one’s name—the fleeting December—





To a damning sky!





Jacquelyn Markham (4/3/2023)










I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260)





Emily Dickinson – 1830-1886





I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!





How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!





Emily Dickinson