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Day 9   Ode to My Bluejeans

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Ahhh a little sleep and a whole new attitude as Day 9 of the poem-a-day challenge arrives. A little lighter in the vein of Pablo Neuruda’s “Ode to My Socks” (see prompt from Maureen Thorson by clicking here at Napowrimo.net or below).

Ode to My Bluejeans

some stretch in the bluejeans required

bluejeans must be rugged but with style

often worn bluejeans can usually be revived

with a twirl in the clothes dryer

bluejeans pulled on for a knock on the door

bluejeans for a stroll in the “back forty”

bluejeans with a hat & sunglasses

for a trip to the mailbox

bluejeans & boots for a serious trek

in the overgrown field

bluejeans & flip flops

for a quick trip to the store

bluejeans to plant

rootbound dianthus, viola, & dill

hang bluejeans on a hook for easy grabbing

until one day bluejeans demand

their turn in the washing machine

to retain their usefulness & for

a reward of almost new bluejeans

skip the dryer—except for the twirl

for minor touch up

blue jeans you are a loyal friend!

Jacquelyn Markham (4/9/2024)

Prompt:

“Our prompt for today (optional, as always) takes its inspiration from Pablo Neruda, the Chilean-born poet and Nobel Prize Winner. While he is most famous in the English-speaking world for his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, he also wrote more than two hundred odes, and had a penchant for writing sometimes-long poems of appreciation for very common or mundane things. You can read . . .“Ode to My Socks” here, and “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” here.” (Napowrimo.net)

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.

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!

Poetry & Empathy

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Can empathy change our world? Can poetry create empathy? I believe the answer to these questions is yes. I would like to share a poem with you that attempts to create empathy for one little island girl who is forced to leave her home–just one of the many stories from my work in progress, Bikini Laments.

Bikini Laments (and Rainbow Warrior, the shorter collection that includes some Bikini Atoll poems) is a series of poems about the impact of atomic testing on the South Pacific islands. The short 1946 film below gives some background on this atomic testing that occurred in the 1940s and 1950s.

My poetry in this collection attempts to create empathy for those whose life and culture on Bikini Atoll were lost. “A Child Speaks to Libokra” tells the story of one little island girl taken from her home as I imagined it. One of the poems from Rainbow Warrior (Finishing Line Press, 2023), it was first published by Hawaii Pacific Review as you see it here.

Credit: https://www.cnet.com/pictures/an-atomic-anniversary-for-the-bikini-atoll-pictures/
A Child Speaks to Libokra
The shocking story of Bikini Atoll & the Atomic Testing in a brief film:

According to Psychology Today, “Empathy is a sense that you can understand and share the feelings of another.” As I wrote “A Child Speaks to Libokra,” I became the child. I felt I was leaving my palm trees, my sister’s grave, and my simple home behind to board a big ship to the unknown.

In “Myth of the Infinite Sea,” also from Rainbow Warrior, the poet/reader becomes Eagle, hopefully to create empathy for the avian world that experiences oil on the water (specifically, in this poem, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill).

Could our world be saved from violence, war and environmental disasters with more empathy?

If so, I want to do all I can to encourage empathy with my art.

Jacquelyn ~ Poet Voice