Tag: poetry (page 1 of 3)

TBT: “42°F” by Jenna Whiting

Thank you to everyone who participated in our guest writer series for National Poetry Month! To wrap our celebration up, here is a throwback from Jenna Whiting in November 2017 — a free verse on the time of year where we are wishing for cool respite from summer heat. Now, though, let’s hope things warm up again soon before the semester draws to a close…

42°F

Oh, how I am so glad to see you, merciful white numbers,

Old friends who haven’t greeted me in a year,

Floating in the stark cerulean sky of the Weather Channel app

That I scroll through, standing next to my dorm window.

Finally, after the summer’s sun overstayed its welcome,

After its warmth encroached onto the calendar squares of October for far too long,

After I thought the humidity would never cease sticking to the streets and to me,

The feeling of fall is finally in full force.

42°F

The first time that you appear from your summer hibernation

Is a special day.

I can finally snap open my dorm wardrobe door

And squish the well-worn yarn of my well-loved sweaters between my fingers as I search for the day’s attire.

I can pull on my marshmallow coat and maybe, if I’m lucky enough for the wind to warrant such a treat,

I can wrap a cat’s-ear-soft scarf under my chin and nuzzle into its cloth.

The first emergence into the autumn air from the front doors of Redding,

My sweater and coat and scarf putting forth a valiant effort in the name of warmth,

Is one to be cherished.

Oxygen, cold and crisp as a Granny Smith, enters my nose and invigorates my lungs and mind.

I breathe deeply and cherish the scent of multi-hued leaves

That have erupted throughout campus, making UD’s scenery even more beautiful than before.

I can almost taste them in all their crunchy red and brown and yellow glory.

More deep breaths with each step on the red brick paths

As my hands protest the sudden change of climate,

And I bury them into the pockets that are permanently bitten out of my marshmallow coat.

42°F

One of your best traits is your trademark holiday:

Thanksgiving and its accompanying break from school

And family time and pumpkin pie and background-noise football

And the scent of stuffing filling the kitchen and the sparkling cider that is retrieved from the basement shelves,

And curling up in blankets on the couch in front of a movie, tea or hot chocolate steaming beside me.

42°F

Thank you for instigating the lighting of candles that pervade my house with the spicy scent of cinnamon,

The fire prancing around the wax like the reindeer that will land on the roof in a month.

“But wait, watch this,” says the fireplace, competing with the candles

That can’t hold a candle to the warmth and size of the wood-fueled inferno,

And the central heating provides a familiar whir as comfy air is pushed through the vents.

42°F

I trumpet your magnificence to anyone I can.

“You’re crazy,” they all say. “I love warm weather,” they all say.

Don’t pay attention to them, 42.

You’re the best.

60°F

But wait.

How dare you, Delaware.

I love you, but you’re such a liar, as you always are when it comes to weather.

The warmth is back again,

Not as much as before,

But still here.

But I shan’t worry,

Because the cold will soon return

And settle in

Like a bear in a cave ready to sleep.

“Dear Deceased Poet” by Juliana Castillo

Join us this Tuesday in continuing our National Poetry Month celebration with a guest poem by Juliana Castillo, a Philosophy major of the class of 2025. Juliana uses imagery of membranes, liquid and light in this fictional “love letter” to a poet who was influential to the narrator.

Dear deceased poet, who lived to 

Twenty-five – I miss you, even though you died

Years before I was born; years before today, when 

I am already twenty-six. Dear deceased poet, I can 

Hear your voice, telling me that life is a membrane

To stretch around the vesicles of water, nutrients, and the other

Vacu-sealed ingredients that enable existence.

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“lovebug” by Maura Conley

I feel a bug crawling all over me
maybe I got it during our picnic
it crawled on me right when you cracked that joke
and made me laugh so hard that nothing could ever worry me
it latched onto me and caught a ride home
now everywhere I go, I feel it crawling
under my clothes, all over my arms and legs
I can’t seem to shake it away
when I feel it crawl near my ankle, I try to shake it off
when I feel it crawl on my neck, I try to smack it
when I feel it crawl on my hand, I can never seem to see it
I’m always too slow for the bug
when we run through the grass together,
when you pull me close with your arms around my neck,
when you kiss me while holding my hand,
I feel like the bug is there once again
maybe the bug isn’t real
I’ve never even spotted it
but it must be real
why else would I feel you crawling all over me?

This is a poem about falling in love in the spring, where the nervousness and butterfly-feelings people feel when in love are symbolized as the feeling of a little bug crawling all over the speaker. This piece is composed by Honors freshman Maura Conley. In celebration of National Poetry Month, “186 South College” has been posting the work of Honors students weekly throughout the month of April and May as bonus content. If you or someone you know would like to share their work as a guest writer like Maura, we are still accepting submissions at this link.

“writer’s block” by Lauren Mottel

Cursor blinks at me innocently

Upon the Times throne it resides.

Expectant, it waits for prose

from marionette hands.

Epiphany strikes,

castling queenside.

Cursor reigns;

Pawned, I

Write.

Happy National Poetry Writing Month! Often affectionately referred to as NaPoWriMo, the month of April serves to celebrate readers and writers alike with the optional creative challenge of writing a poem a day for its 30-day duration. It was this time last year that I had stumbled upon one of these daily prompts to compose a nonet. This type of poem required the specific format where the first line has nine syllables, the second line has eight, and so forth until you reach the last line, which would be just one syllable. Prompts such as these are one of the many reasons I enjoy poetry and creative writing. With the purposeful placement and selection of specific words, if not syllable) — all to evoke heart-soaring, quiet, twisting, triumphant, and resonant emotions—with such tenderness and care, it is very hard not to be enamored by a poet’s craftsmanship. In my humble, nerdy opinion. The untapped potential and overwhelming multitudes of possibility are what makes a blank page all the more exciting and dreadful at the same time. 

Therefore during last April, I was inspired by my intensive rewatch of The Queen’s Gambit and by the mockery of slow progress on an assignment (most assuredly was not an Honors project or anything… definitely just a typical report…) to compose the nonet for the NaPoWriMo prompt. I found that writer’s block, if not writing itself, is acutely similar to a match of chess. Each move and paragraph is purposeful in building upon its prior movements to achieve a desired narrative, whether that’s checkmate or a defense of a three-point thesis.

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TBT: “Resisting Passiveness” by Avery Beer

April is National Poetry Month, and in celebration, 186 South College is posting all things poetry! This Tuesday’s post is a throwback from Avery Beer about being bold in life, with a quote from Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

I wouldn’t call myself the adventurous type. I can definitely be impulsive and I am certainly passionate, but I don’t always act on my instincts. Whenever I think about college, I think of it as a time to build ourselves outside of our comfort zones. I think of being bold and being active. Freshman year for me was a refreshing transition: I finally felt the air in my lungs again. I had my moments where I really loved high school, but I struggled with a lot of anxiety as well. Thinking about it now, and knowing how much I’ve grown, I am proud of myself. I am proud of myself for not staying passive, but rather fighting it and truly defining what it means to live my life.

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