Tag: Poem-A-Day Challenge

Day 8 the fates at their looms

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citation below: Brittanica

It’s late. This prompt has troubled me, and I have come up with a paradox, a conundrum, a riddle that has no solution, no answer, and is perhaps an exercise in futility. The question of “what if” is what I explore in this poem about “an encounter or relationship that shouldn’t have happened.” (Read the complete prompt after the poem.)

the fates at their looms

What fate is in store?

If only a different time, age, space.

If only Oppenheimer never met the atomic bomb.

If only the atomic bomb never met Los Alamos,

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Bikini Atoll.

If only Deepwater Horizon never met the Gulf of Mexico.

If only Hitler never met Germany.

If only Sitting Bull never met the U.S. Forces.

If only Frida Kahlo never encountered the bus that hit a streetcar.

If only Christa McAuliffe hadn’t met the Challenger.

“What if” questioning could go on forever.

But the fates weave at their looms.

If only we could tempt, bribe, cajole the weavers

who spin, measure, and cut the threads of fate.

Could we change these fateful times?

Jacquelyn Markham (4/8/2024)

From Maureen Thorson’s Napowrimo.net poem-a-day challenge: “Finally, our (optional) prompt for the day takes its inspiration from Laura Foley’s poem “Year End.” Today, we challenge you to write a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people (or things) that shouldn’t really have ever met – whether due to time, space, age, the differences in their nature, or for any other reason.”

Citation for image:

Citation: Schadow, Gottfried: Fates sculpture,  Encyclopædia Britannica

(https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fate-Greek-and-Roman-mythology#/media/1/202442/202550

Day 7 Wish You Were Here

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at the shore – photo by poet J. Markham

wish you were here

after all I am solo

at the seaside grill on an island

a swirl of eclipse energy

wraps me up

in my thoughts of other times

but, hey, today is now & I’m alive

so wish you were here

to drink the chardonnay

to share the overflowing

crabcake benedict & grits

to cross the rivers

to meander the maritime forest

to find the path &

to walk the shore with me

wish you were here

Jacquelyn Markham (4/7/24)

photo by the poet

By the way, the prompt for today! Courtesy of Napowrimo.net

And last but not least, we’re taking it easy with today’s (optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem titled “Wish You Were Here” that takes its inspiration from the idea of a postcard. Consistent with the abbreviated format of a postcard, your poem should be short, and should play with the idea of travel, distance, or sightseeing. If you’re having trouble getting started, perhaps you’ll find some inspiration in these images of vintage postcards.

Day 6 Weird Wisdom

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“And now for our (optional) prompt from Napowrimo: “Today’s we’d like to challenge you to write a poem rooted in ‘weird wisdom,’ by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since.”

Oh, how I struggled with this prompt! Truth is, all that weird wisdom has stuck! So here’s the poem for day 6!

Bird singing in the morning!

The Staying Power of Weird Wisdom

The trunkful of weird wisdom  

that I learned as a child never emptied.

My mother rivalled a character in a Flannery O’Connor story

with her wealth of proverbs, warnings, and clichés.

Maybe I lacked a dress for the prom, or a hat for Easter,

or a book for school, but never a lack of weird wisdom.

Necessity is the mother of invention, (how many times did I hear?)

A leopard doesn’t change its spots.

A fool and her money . . .(yes a litany of these!),

a bird in the hand, a journey of a thousand miles. . .,

Oh, and “all that glitters isn’t gold!”

Beggars can’t be choosy, daughter.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, now!

How many times?

Don’t cross that bridge ‘til you come to it?

If wishes were horses, we would all take a ride,

young lady! But the weirdest wisdom

of all that puzzles me still:

“Sing before breakfast; cry before night.”

What? We should all sing like birds.

Sing to sunrise! Sing to the morning!

Sing to the new day!

Moral of the story:

Some wisdom is not only weird, but better left unsaid!

Jacquelyn Markham (4/6/2024)

Day 5 The Blessing

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The Blessing of the Poet, the Delphinium, and the Jay

after Alicia Ostriker

To be blessed

said the poet

is to feel inspiration

flow into you

like the lyre of Orpheus

or Shelley or the angels

To be blessed

said the Delphinium

is to “knock their eyes out”

with a blue so deep and

vivid even the sea goddess

would be envious of you

though your indigo

is fleeting and hers

returns every sunlit day

To be blessed

said the jay

is to call out

jay jay jay

in a raucous entré

though you really want

to sing a melody like a lyre

in Orpheus’ hands

or the angels.

Jacquelyn Markham

(4/5/2024)

Delphinium

Thank you Napowrimo for today’s prompt:

“Friday is here, and so is the fifth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Now, let’s get to our optional prompt! Today we’d like you to start by taking a look at Alicia Ostriker’s poem, “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog.” Now try your hand at writing your own poem about how a pair or trio very different things would perceive of a blessing or, alternatively, how these very different things would think of something else (luck, grief, happiness, etc).”

Angel with lyre image credit: Image credit: http://www.dana-mad.ru/gal/image.php?img=5387

Day 4: Mermaid: Triolet

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Today’s prompt from Napowrimo (thank you Maureen Thorson!): “Our (optional) prompt for the day challenges you to write a poem in which you take your title or some language/ideas from The Strangest Things in the World. First published in 1958, the book gives shortish descriptions of odd natural phenomena, and is notable for both its author’s turn of phrase and intermittently dubious facts.”

Because, truly, I do think it a little strange that the manatee, or its cousin the dugong, ever looked like a mermaid to the lonely sailors of the sea, I chose this idea from the “strangest things” book.

Image credit: https://mermaid.fandom.com/wiki/Mermaids_(Mythology)

From the book, I chose the entry on “Mammal Prototypes of the ‘Mermaid’”

“The prototypes of the “mermaids” of legend are among the least known of all animals to naturalists because of their underwater habitat and their secretive habits. They are the manatees of the Caribbean region and the dugongs of the Indian Ocean. They constitute the only remaining species of the serenia, or moon creatures, distant relatives of the elephant. Both have a somewhat human facial appearance. They feed standing upright in the water, their flippers held out before them like arms. Sometimes the females hold their calves in these flippers. Seen from a distance, they have a curiously human appearance, which may account for the many reports of mermaids and mermen.”

And though, I think the sailors must have been hallucinating to spot a manatee or dugong and see a mermaid (less often a merman), I wrote my poem in response to this entry.  And because I spent a good part of my day in the dentist office, I decided to write a short poem, called a Triolet.

Not sure that was a timesaver, but here’s my triolet and poem for day 4. That intricate rhyme scheme with two refrains is a challenge indeed!

Mermaid: Triolet

She rises from the churning waves.

Ahoy, a maiden from the sea

What makes a mermaid act so brave?

She rises from the churning waves.

Will our ship she try to save?

Keep us windward and not lee.

She rises from the churning waves.

Ahoy, a maiden from the sea.

image credit: https://www.shared.com/9-pictures-that-prove-manatees-are-the-oceans-cutest-creature/

Note: (To learn more about the difference in manatees and dugongs, read this article by Emily Brauner.)

Day 3 Encounter (Encuentro)

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“The dream world and the real world are the same.” (Remedios Varo)

Image Credit: National Galleries of Scotland

Today, Napowrimo has challenged me to write a surreal prose poem. Wonderful! It gave me the opportunity to do what I love to do–learn more about women artists, in this case, surreal women artists of Mexico. Check out this article in Art News if you would like to learn more about this intriguing artist, Remedios Varo and her artist friends.

And here is my prose poem for today:

Encounter (Encuentro)

The artist encounters her past self. Remedios tips open the lid of the coffin-like box & haunting eyes peer out. She does not look in. She seems uninterested in the self of her past soon to be on the shelf with the others. Her cape flows blue-gray and ragged, and even her skeletal fingers poise ready,  but her new self has yet to be revealed. The artist gazes beyond now. She encounters life, death, and transformation as she waits to drop the lid on her old self. Who is the new Varos she sees in the distance?

Jacquelyn Markham (4/3/2024)

Remedios Varos, artist 1908-1963

I really appreciate that the National Gallery of Scotland is acquiring more works by women surrealists. And always, much credit goes to the National Museum of Women in the Arts for its contributions to women’s art. Thank you NMWA for featuring Varos in exhibits and events and for all you do for women in the arts!

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. She offers writing & creativity guidance through Moonflower Mentoring.

Day 1 PAD 2024-plot poem

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Here we go, poets and poetry lovers! Day one of the poem-a-day challenge and National Poetry Month! So exciting! Read more about it here.

Prompt: Write, without consulting the book, a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you like but haven’t read in a long time (compliments of NaPoWriMo)! My today’s effort below.

Ocean moon, photo by the poet

Edna & the Sea

When Edna left the shore &

plunged into the salty blue,

her body slid through breaking waves,

a silvery fish, sunlight flashing freedom.

When Edna left the shore behind

she lost everything—except herself.

When she left the shore, she found herself,

as solid as a whale, breathing air in bursts,

then diving deep, deep, deep into the azure sea.

When Edna returned to

her city home, everything she lost

was there—Victorian rooms, silver trays

with calling cards, tea sets, & callers at the door,

but where was she?

Edna felt the pull of the ocean,

slipped from the shallow talk & society,

she felt the waves wash her ankles,

a moment’s hesitation before the plunge,

like a fish freed from the hook,

frolicking in viridian sea, its escape barely seen.

Jacquelyn Markham 4/1/2024

This plot poem is inspired by Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.  If  you haven’t read the book, you are missing a classic novel that reveals so much about the lives of women in the 19th century. And frankly, even into the 20th (and maybe even today for some women), Chopin’s words can evoke a “tower moment.”

Tower Card from Rider Waite deck

2024 Poem-a-Day begins!

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Good bye March. Hello April and National Poetry Month!

So, the early bird prompt came in and I will end March with beginning the April poem-a-day challenge (as every ending is truly a beginning).

Here is the early bird prompt from NaPoWriMo.

“Pick a word from the list below. Then write a poem titled either “A [your word]” or “The [your word]” in which you explore the meaning of the word, or some memory you have of it, as if you were writing an illustrative/alternative definition.” The list:

  • Cage
  • Ocean
  • Time
  • Cedar
  • Window
  • Sword
  • Flute

Of course, as a flutist, I certainly must select “flute”!

A flute

A flute coos blues

swallows air like a tuba.

In Galway’s hands, the flute shows off,

becomes a bumble bee!

A funky flute spits & hisses

like my tiger cat, hums

a deep rhythm like Yusef Lateef.

A flute sound in the woods

travels trees, accompanies

bird song. My flute

sends a silver melody

across the waves

an offering to the sea.

Jacquelyn Markham (3/31/24)

A flutist in an Easter bonnet!

Day 30   “The Return of Love: A palinode”    PAD 2023

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“Painting my heart out”–acrylic painting by the poet

My poem for Day 30, the final poem of poem-a-day challenge, reflects a retraction of my position on disappointment in love put forward in many poems, including “Hyena,” (day 5); “Sonnet on Love,” (day 9); “Affairs of the Heart: Claims & Warnings,” (Day 16); and “somewhere i travelled beyond good sense,” (Day 25). As I retract my position on love, instead of bitterness and disappointment, I will reverse some of the lines from these poems. Why am I doing changing my tune? I am responding to the prompt below and writing a “palinode.”

Maureen’s prompt: “write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. For example, you might pick a poem you drafted earlier in the month and write a poem that contradicts or troubles it. This could be an interesting way to start working on a series of related poems. Alternatively, you could play around with the idea of a palinode by writing a poem in which the speaker says something like “I take it back” or otherwise abandons a prior position within the single poem.”

The Return of Love: a palinode

I waved goodbye from the closed car window,

laughing like a hyena, louder than the wheels

humming on the highway.  Then,

the highway turns toward home & you.

Words don’t fit like a puzzle, but

drop like a stone & your once warm

embrace turns chill until sun slips from

behind the cloud & it’s all bright gold.

I asked a fortune teller if  I should

continue this time.  She predicted

an affair of endless love.  

I must retract my earlier bitter words!

My sword-pierced heart flip flops. So, i

send him these words that e.e. shared

“your slightest look easily will unclose me

though I have closed myself as fingers.”

I whisper “rose is a rose is a rose” & shout

“How do I love thee, let me count the ways?”

            Jacquelyn Markham (4/30/2023)

Day 29 Pierogi Speaks to Babcia        PAD 2023

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Pierogi image courtesy of Kingarthurbaking.com

The prompt: “Start by reading Alberto Rios’s poem “Perfect for Any Occasion.” Now, write your own two-part poem that focuses on a food or type of meal. At some point in the poem, describe the food or meal as if it were a specific kind of person. Give the food/meal at least one line of spoken dialogue.”

In 2022, I was pleased to be featured by Maureen and Napowrimo with my poem “Kielbasa Speaks to the Vegetarian of Polish Descent,” so for this food poem, I wanted to stay with the Polish theme and Pierogis came to mind. Here’s what came out of my meditation on Pierogis! I wish I had some sizzling in butter right now!

Poem removed by Poet Voice for revision and publication elsewhere.