The Poetry Marathon

Prompt: If I could make one thing vanish forever, it would be < this is a prompt from the teal version of Burn after Writing

Poem 10:

If everything could last despite

the absence of Time – I wonder

what kind of world we would be

living in if Father Time simply

decided to be no more. Would

that mean the end of dementia

or rather the end of everything.

• — – — – Nope, nope, nope not liking where this one is going. New prompt, new direction

“paint on your hands”

Poem 10 take 2:

With paint on your hands

we are crowded beneath

the things you create and

the versions of people we

have always wanted to be,

but never figured out how

to actually become. Darling,

you and I have always been

the better parts of each other

but this – this is too beautiful

not to share with the world.

-M. Rene’

Sincerelybluejay poetry

Alrighty – hour 9 with the prompt “hold this on your tongue”

Poem 9:

If you hold this on your tongue

and let it dissolve like a fresh fallen

snowflake two days before your birthday

you will engrain this taste into your memory.

The ink will flow from you freely and often,

the story will be your’s to tell any time you like,

and the poetry will morph so flawlessly with the

creatures and art you surround yourself with

that you may even begin to forget who created what.

I like to think that if you hold this idea

on your tongue for long enough you’ll

almost never be able to forget what my

poetry and I tasted like either.

-M. Rene’

SincerelyBlueJay Poetry

For this one, a friend of mine specifically requested a poem about ramen – so here we go, but since I just wrote a recipe poem for 7 – I’ll have to do something different for 8.

Poem 8: An ode to Ramen:

This is my ode to Ramen – fancified:

Whenever the grey clouds begin to

settle in within my heart and somehow

won’t actually reach the skies around –

I watch howl’s moving castle and

eat ramen. Fancified by laziness

with diced vegetables, fresh cheese,

heavily spiced chicken, and cracked eggs

soaked in water hot enough to create a

broth out of anything – be it mustard or

honey or more seasoning than the chicken.

I curl up in fuzzy socks two sizes too big

and sweatshirts with way too much history

for any inanimate object to deserve in full.

I stare out the window at the real world and

everything else that happens without me.

This is my ode to Ramen and all the people

I’ve ever shared it or the cloudy days with.

-M. Rene’

Sincerelybluejay Poetry

Okay, it only took like forever, but I think I’ve hit my stride! How great is that? Alrighty, so hour 7 “my foolproof recipe for mending a broken heart” From the teal blue Burn after Reading prompt journal. Which is great because I was super excited to play around with formed poetry today – and this is the greatest opportunity I could ever dream of for a recipe poem – some of my favorite formed poems out there. So excited to see where this goes!

Poem 7: A recipe poem

To mend a broken heart,

there is only one foolproof recipe:

Gather up a large bowl full of

all the great memories you shared

and a crack 5 medium eggs filled

with the laughter and tears of joy

and you can’t forget the extract

of authenticity when you were at

your strongest together. You know,

some relationships fade apart and

others get dropped, cracked right

down the middle, taken from you

without any warning at all. And it’s

the difference between the two that

reminds me – this is the ultimate recipe

for healing. Once you have the wet

ingredients – mixed into each other well

start to weigh out the dry ingredients:

you need a pinch of the salt from

the arguments that shouldn’t have been

any real thing, but clearly were. Add in

a cup and a half of sugar refined from

all the moments that brought you closer

than you ever imagined at “hello”.

Bake in the sun alongside the chalk

drawings left behind by the kids next door

and remember that healing takes time,

it comes in all shapes and sizes too.

-M. Rene’

SincerelyBlueJay Poetry

I genuinely cannot believe we are already in hour 6 – it feels like I just woke up and also like I’m an 80 year old woman aching in her reading chair well after midnight. LOL! But that’s okay I’m here I’m ready! I’m stretching, I’m dancing, I’m doing all the things I can do. And I’m super excited for this prompt too: Say hello again by @thepoet_rajah on IG and Twitter!

Poem 6:

I think that if you could just find it

somewhere deep inside of your soul

to say hello again, to reach out just

one more time with the intention of

staying – or at the very least growing –

I think that we could be something

really quite special from within our

custom worlds built upon book spines

and spilled inky farewells. We do not

always need to push each other away

just to feel alive, wanted or needed.

-M. Rene’

SincerelyBlueJay Poetry

Poem 6.5: (because there’s time and I want to explore the prompt again) :

I want to say hello again,

to actually pick up the phone

and call you from three hours behind

and 5 years down the line, ready to

hear everything you’ve been through

and all the things that have changed.

I want to say hello again,

to explore all the possibilities of

this relationship we keep dipping

our toes into but never actually sharing.

Knowing that you and I – we bring

something really cool to the table;

balance. A skill, not a lot of artists can

claim between life and work and

all that incredible daydreaming too.

I want to say hello again

and know that this time there

does not have to be a goodbye.

-M. Rene’

SincerelyblueJay Poetry

Another prompt from I am Incomplete without you – which is honestly one of my favorite prompt books ever and is probably the most valuable thing I’ve ever invested in.

Your Name is _________ and you are important.

Your name is ______ and you are valued and needed here.

Your name is ________ and you have completed me.

Poem 5:

Your name is Strawberry and you are important.

We got drunk on wine and midnight as poetry

seeped so freely from our veins and filled the room

together we let the world slip right on by for the sake

of artistry and togetherness. And you are important.

Your name is Polaris and you are valued and needed here.

Always guiding me towards a better version of myself

and the things I hope to share with the world for the

purpose of not only inspiration but pure unfiltered joy.

I cannot thank you enough, but I can continue to remind you

that you are indeed valued and needed here.

Your name is Poetry and you have completed me.

Encouraging me to continuously embrace everything

that has gone into shaping me and building up who

and what I am, reminding me that my voice is strong

needed and necessary, and that I too am important.

Your name is Poetry, we are one in the same and you

have completed me.

-M. Rene’

SincerelyBlueJay Poetry

Whoot, making progress, doing all the things, I am so very excited to see what I come up with this hour and what you folks do too! My prompt this time around is “Where do the stars go?” and it is from a pre-made prompt list I crafted to share with my audience. I hope that if you’re finding this and inspired by the idea you will also know with full confidence to take it and run.

Now, on to the poem, shall we???

Poem 4:

There is a certain sort of

innocent wonder that comes

with questions like, “where

do the stars go?” and “How

does the rain know to fall?”

It is in these moments that

our inner child, or the children

around us so often, are allowed

to explore the endless number of

possibilities that make myths and

legands and day to day living just

so accessible. So beautiful. And

today, as we gather around the idea

of poetry and love and creativity flowing

ever so freely, I ask you what is it that

the children these days really need?

-M. Rene’

Sincerelybluejay Poetry

Poem 4.5 (because I had two different directions I wanted to go with this prompt and well, I have time!) :

I have, personally, always wondered

where do the stars go during the day

when we cannot see them, spot them,

name them from beyond the clouds and

the ever-brilliant glowing skies. It is not

that I don’t understand science, earth’s

rotation, or any of the fancy terms we use

to explain such things – and so much more;

but rather, I have come to discover that

constant questioning, dreaming of the

many possibilities, and experiencing

each and every moment as it truly is

allows for the artistry to flow through

me so much more authentically. Thus,

I am able to explore all the light that

truly does exist within me, after all,

we are all made of the same stuff

as those glorious stars we all talk

so very much about in poetry.

-M. Rene’

Again I am using the “I am incomplete without you” prompt journal by Iain S. Thomas and this time I’m using page 63: A bird that can eat words lands on this page, what words does it eat? And What words doesn’t it eat?

POEM 3:

Should you decide that _____ is indeed

more nourishing than everything we have

ever fed ourselves on previously – be it

poetry or ______ I wish you the best in

making use of everything that is offered

and that which is not available but should be.

And honestly, the morning dew allows us

_____, which is not to be neglected so long as

you understand _______. The early bird catches

the worm but sometimes the words we comfort

ourselves with are far more important. I only hope

______ will wake to notice such things before they

are gone and over and shriveled in the midday ______.

-M. Rene’

Sincerelybluejay poetry

Alrighty, hour two is upon us, and I’m so excited to see how this goes I am sorting through all the prompts I have at arms reach and the one I’m most excited to tackle right now is from the prompt journal “I am Incomplete Without You” by Iain S. Thomas of Iwrotethisforyou.me

“Write a poem in which the word “breathe” appears three times” and I’ve mixed it with the prompt “who stayed” from pages 13, and 134 respectively.

Darling, sometimes you just have to breathe

first thing in the morning and again several times

throughout anything even remotely resembling a day.

And in doing so, it is up to you to remember

that not everyone stays around through the times

like this, not everyone knows how or has the extra

bandwidth to help you through it. But those who do,

like the cabbage man, the one who makes you tea

on cold days, and the one who buys your books despite

having helped to create them – those are the people who

make the breathing worth it. Who keep us on track and

heal the hearts we didn’t know even needed healing.

Sometimes, all you really can do is, breathe.

-M. Rene’

SincerelyBlueJay Poetry

It is 6 am for me, and we’re getting started with coffee and all the support I’m crying tears of joy before sunrise even happens. So that’s great. Anyway, for poem one I’ve decided to go with the fitting prompt: Wake up Darling.

It is morning

a new day –

the day after.

Though the sun still rises

and I am decked in sunflowers

feeling the bees buzzing beneath

my skin again and again. Ready to

grow again. And you have told me

that I cannot control my body,

my relationships or soul.

And the sunflowers are in full bloom –

only those who know me as well as it gets

know this is indeed a code. A secret language.

That I am not myself today and probably

will not be tomorrow or the next day either.

But that is okay because I know

change is coming. And so are many

new seasons.

-M. Rene’ /

SincerelyBlueJay Poetry