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.
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.
It was a welcome prompt on this Day 27 of our challenge. I also tried a new way of presenting the poem on my blog. I am pretty pleased with the outcome. The inspiration from songs or musical genres (part of the process) was the deep emotional song by Melody Gardot (also linked below). Like Frida Kahlo, Gardot was injured in a serious accident at a very young age (bus for Kahlo and bicycle for Gardot). Painting saved Frida and music saved Melody.
poet playing flute from the heart, Penn Center, ca. 2008
The Prompt:And now for our prompt – optional, as always! Today we’d like to challenge you to write an “American sonnet.” What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter. Here are a few examples:
If you’d like more specific instructions for how to get started, Write 253 has a great “formula” prompt for an American sonnet, which you can find here.
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.
Today’s prompt guided us poets to use several poetic sound techniques—alliteration, consonance, and assonance. I added to that a couple of small poetic forms: the haiku (3 lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables) and the cinquain (5 lines of 2,4,6,8,2 syllables). Fun!
The Prompt from Napowrimo.net: “And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that involves alliteration, consonance, and assonance. Alliteration is the repetition of a particular consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds elsewhere in multiple words, and assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. Traci Brimhall’s poem “A Group of Moths” provides a great example of these poetic devices at work, with each line playing with different sounds that seem to move the poem along on a sonorous wave.”
Tango Till: Haiku
Mango, mango, will
you do the tango till dawn?
Tango me all night.
Jacquelyn Markham 4/26/24
Be Brave: Cinquain
O blue
melancholy
mood melancholy me
sun sparks diamonds on blue river
be brave.
Jacquelyn Markham 4/26/24
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Dr. Markham uses a variety of approaches to suit each person’s creative process:one-on-one, workshops, and/or intensive programs.In person and virtual options available. To learn more about Moonflower Mentoring:Email: Moonflower Mentoring at jacquiepoet3@gmail.com
You can find all the details about this prompt, at our poetry center for the 2024 poem-a-day challenge linked here at Napowrimo.net: “Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on the “Proust Questionnaire,” a set of questions drawn from Victorian-era parlor games, and adapted by modern interviewers. You could choose to answer the whole questionnaire, and then write a poem based on your answers, answer just a few, or just write a poem that’s based on the questions.”
Brief Bio of Marcel Proust, courtesy of “Light & Art”:
The“madeleine”, with its softness and unique flavor, transports the author of the text,Marcel Proust, to his childhood. This French writer(1871-1922)renewed the contemporary novel and was the creator of the series“In search of lost time”, made up of seven novels, to whose writing he dedicated almost his entire life. Locked in a room, with cork-covered walls, he created the protagonist (his alter ego) and explored his past evoked by a sensitive and disorderly memory whose only law is the association of ideas. (Retrieved from https://www.luzyarte.net/2016/06/la-madeleine-de-proust.html)
Check out the details of the prompt from Napowrimo.net here: The summary: “Poem about or involving a superhero.”
With the full moon in Scorpio rising, today/tonight was full as well, so I’m a bit late today.
As far as the prompt, most superheroes in popular culture (including the women) target male demographics, so I haven’t been a big fan, but my superheroine comes in a different form–my Polish Grandma and here she is starring in my poem for Day 23.
Grandma K, my Polish Grandma, poet photo
Grandma K. Saves the Day
Batman, Superman, Catwoman,
Batwoman, Supergirl, Spiderman,
Wonder Woman!
None compare to my Superheroine
Polish Grandma K!
Strength, courage, skill & daring
of superheros times ten!
Born in 1896 to parents just arrived
from Poland on a ship to work
in salt mines & on a dirt poor farm.
Superwoman Grandma, a beautiful
young woman, found a job doing
linens, organdy & lace
for fancy ladies in the nearby town
where she met a handsome man
who wooed her & became his wife.
He traveled to Chicago and Milwaukee
and she stayed home to raise the one,
two, three, four, five babies that she had,
number six still in the womb when he “disappeared.”
Now, that’s another story.
The heroine Grandma K always looked as
fresh as the linens she ironed for her ladies.
The children did as well. When the elders failed,
she sold the trees from off the farm
to keep the land their own,
she cared for elders, sick, and young
with six at home and worked in the
cherry factory. She waitressed at the new hotel.
Thankful for her life, she recited Polish prayers
for the poor, not knowing she was the one
who received the blessings.
Step down, Wonder Woman,
Grandma K saves the day!
Jacquelyn Markham 4/23/2024
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.
The prompt for Day 22 from Napowrimo.net: “The idea is to write a poem in which two things have a fight. Two very unlikely things, if you can manage it.” After much thought and deliberation (and loss of sleep), I chose the insomniac fighting sleep!
Insomniac Fights Sleep
The pillow hot,/On both sides/…Haven’t
Slept all night, too late/To dream of sleep. . . (Anna Akhmatova)
And on this 18th day of our challenge, Maureen at Napowrimo says: “Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker expresses the desire to be someone or something else, and explains why.”
What I Long to Be
I long to be a new version of me.
I long to be a rockin’ rock star who
tours the world and sings to packed crowds,
with a legacy that lasts a half century.
I long to be much taller & thinner, much more stylish.
I long to write novels & sell them to
moviemakers who turn them into series.
I long to have a productive green garden,
an immaculate yard, and a spotless house,
clean sheets every night, no ring on the tub.
I long to be strong & courageous, climb
rocks like a pro, & nothing too heavy for me to lift!
No mountain too high for me to climb!
I long to know no fear—not in the dark of night
or on the busiest expressway that crosses the city
or the highest suspension bridge.
An elevator up to the 100th floor, no problem.
No anxiety, no jitters, no vertigo.
I long to be a famous philanthropist & give money away,
an environmentalist who saves the manatees & the whales.
But, since all of these longings are far from my reach,
Poet Voice 