by Holly Jahangiri | Apr 30, 2023
The Jolly Zeugma
Calm he held his scissors and his horses
Unfurling sails of paper and his brow
He stood, within his mind, upon the prow
Ready to control the rough sea's forces.
He heard the ocean and his mother's cry:
"Naptime!" He laid his keel and sleepy head
Upon the desk and longed for sea and bed.
He woke, at last, the Elmer's glue was dry -
His paper pirate ship was set to sail.
He ran, with boat and mother both in hand
A fair breeze blew: brave sailors bid goodbye to land
As storms raced in and turned fair winds to gales.
But sinking fate's not always what it seems;
One wave can't capsize boats and boyhood dreams.
Today’s Poets
Daisy Zamora – a contemporary Latin American poet whose work covers daily life, human rights, politics, revolution, feminist issues, art, history and culture. Read more here.
April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.
This month, my goal is to:
- Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
- Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.
I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.
Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)
by Holly Jahangiri | Apr 29, 2023
Yes
She practiced, in the mirror, saying "no" -
An easy word; it should be simpler than this.
But she was taught from childhood, "Say yes,"
Lest disobedience be dealt a blow.
"No!" she longed to shout, but "yes" was safer
Lest his anger seek her as its target.
Words of hate and love their mingled argot,
Obedient, she, and none could save her.
She set aside her plans and fondest dreams
And learned to meet each expectation
Daily fearing loss his affection
She learned in time to smile, stifling screams.
Stripped bare of personality, she sighs
And entertains herself with little lies.
— Holly Jahangiri
Today’s Poet
Yevgeny Yevtushenko – a Soviet and Russian poet whose Nobel-nominated poem, “Babi Yar” denounced the revisionist history of the Soviets and the still rampant anti-Semitism that existed. It was set to music by Shostakovich, and you can listen to it below. Read more here.
April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.
This month, my goal is to:
- Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
- Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.
I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.
Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)
by Holly Jahangiri | Apr 28, 2023
Let's get this one thing straight, ere we begin:
I never threw a piss-pot on his head.
No other suitor suited me; my kin
Would have me married off or see me dead.
But Socrates, his mind still sharp, saw grit:
In me, and he prefered to spend his days
With one whose fiery tongue could match his wit
And my outspokenness left him unfazed.
Wife, daughter, nurse - the outside world be damned
Companion, mentor, husband, man: He was
My world, and I was his. Our lives are dimmed
In history's pages; mine, made small because
The feminine, possessed of intellect
Is feared, though man's deemed worthy of respect.
Today’s Poet
Halima Xudoyberdiyeva – an Uzbek poet whose themes at different times of her career have dealt with Uzbek nationhood and history, liberation movements, and feminism. She was awarded the title People’s Poet of Uzbekistan. Read more here.
Sacred Woman – Happy 60th birthday, Halima!: johanna_hypatia — LiveJournal
April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.
This month, my goal is to:
- Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
- Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.
I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.
Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)
by Holly Jahangiri | Apr 27, 2023
Within a Shell
I plucked one perfect, mottled sea shell
From the crushed bones of its ancestors; their grit
The sunkissed sand beneath my feet
Soaked through, with ocean's briny tang, and hard,
Unlike the powdery, pillowed dunes
That can't remember what it's like to feel the sea.
I wondered at its journey, how it ended at the sea
I held within my hand, a home, now just a shell
How many years from sea to shore to dunes -
Who says the spineless creatures don't have grit?
Whenever tempted by the thought that life is hard
I think how hard it must've been - from fins to feet.
The Little Mermaid envies me my feet,
But happily, I would slip into the sea.
Discernment of His master plan is hard
But God and Science aren't at war - the shell
That landed at my feet, rubbed smooth by grit
Divine, tells timeless stories, buried in the dunes.
A thousand million years of tales lie hidden in the dunes
As happy children dig, build castles in the sand, and bury tiny feet
Their soft skin damp, their chubby legs adorned with grit
This moment's all they know of the eternal sea
Experience, tight-clasped secret held within its shell
At least today's too kind to tell them "Life is hard."
Some day, too soon they'll learn that lesson: that it's hard -
That castles made of sand must crumble and return to dunes.
But as the children venture from the safety of their shells
Exploring, till they find the chosen path for righteous feet,
The path that leads from sea to shining sea
Will give them strength of character, and grit.
Rough edges will be polished smooth by ever-finer grit
As youth meets all the challenges of life, however hard
And in old age, reflecting by the ever-changing sea
They'll pluck that mottled, perfect shell from sparkling dunes
Unrushed, they'll rise, to rinse their gnarled, sandy feet,
And throw it, heavenward, to home, that shell.
Relentless, the eternal sea will tumble hard against the grit - that shell
Now one with all the other grains of sand will keep us grounded, steady, on our feet,
So one day, we can join our bones and stories underneath the sunkissed dunes.
— Holly Jahangiri
Author’s note: Lord help me, I think I’ve found a form more onerous than the villanelle. At least when trying, near midnight, to finish it.
Today’s Poet
I learned this week that my application to the Summer Writers Institute at the University of St. Thomas was accepted.
[P]articipants will meet at UST and hear from distinguished writers of poetry and fiction, and engage in seminars on art and beauty, Catholicism and literature, and the craft of writing. They will also get counsel and help with their own work in lively creative writing workshops.
Between the evening public readings with masters of the art, the intense seminars and workshops, and the good company at meals, participants will experience that most elusive thing: a literary community intended to deepen and strengthen their own work while also welcoming them into the great literary and cultural tradition of the Church.
So, in honor of that, today’s featured poet is James Matthew Wilson, who will be leading the poetry workshops. Read more about him here.
On a box of rainbow sprinkles | The New Criterion
Poetry – JAMES MATTHEW WILSON
April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.
This month, my goal is to:
- Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
- Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.
I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.
Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)
by Holly Jahangiri | Apr 26, 2023
The Reaping
As Spring gives way to Summer’s radiant glow
That warms the world in melting heat
We lose our sense of Winter’s coming snow.
Spring’s fledglings, fawns, and kits all grow
The calf gives up its mother’s teat
As Spring gives way to Summer’s radiant glow
Content with grassy fields, the cattle graze and low
Newly shorn, sheep softly bleat
We lose our sense of Winter’s coming snow.
At Winter’s end, we bid the darkness “Go!”
And soon, its icy chill retreats
As Spring gives way to Summer’s radiant glow
At last, all Fall to the conquering foe –
In stunning self-deceit
We lose our sense of Winter’s coming snow.
Smiling, we pretend we do not know
What end must come, when life’s complete.
As Spring gives way to Summer’s radiant glow
We lose our sense of Winter’s coming snow.
— Holly Jahangiri
Today’s Poet
Paul Verlaine – a French poet of the 19th century whose poem, Chanson d’automne, was used in WW II.
In preparation for Operation Overlord, the BBC‘s Radio Londres had signaled to the French Resistance with the opening lines of the 1866 Verlaine poem “Chanson d’Automne” were to indicate the start of D-Day operations under the command of the Special Operations Executive. The first three lines of the poem, “Les sanglots longs / des violons / de l’automne” (“Long sobs of autumn violins”), would mean that Operation Overlord was to start within two weeks. These lines were broadcast on 1 June 1944. The next set of lines, “Blessent mon coeur / d’une langueur / monotone” (“wound my heart with a monotonous languor”), meant that it would start within 48 hours and that the resistance should begin sabotage operations, especially on the French railroad system; these lines were broadcast on 5 June at 23:15.[3][4][5][6]
Chanson d’automne – Wikipedia
It is time for the letter “V” – and I would be remiss if I failed to mention the villainous Villanelle. Do note that it was a mistake to think it a fixed form; originally, villanelle merely meant a country dance. It might as well have been the Paradelle.
April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.
This month, my goal is to:
- Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
- Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.
I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.
Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)
