Poem prompt: “Our featured resource for the day is the online collection of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. There’s much to explore here, but just to get you started, why not peruse their images of beautifully designed and varied musical instruments, ranging from a guitar shaped like the moon to a rattle in the form of a bird that is peering suspiciously at any potential wielder?
Finally, today’s (optional) prompt is inspired by musical notation, and particularly those little italicized –and often Italian – instructions you’ll find over the staves in sheet music, like con allegro or andante. First, pick a notation from the first column below. Then, pick a musical genre from the second column. Finally, pick at least one word from the third column. Now write a poem that takes inspiration from your musical genre and notation, and uses the word or words you picked from the third column.
| “with a hint of frenzy” | power ballad | sharks |
| “the joy is gone” | jazz fantasia | nonsense |
| “smugly saying ‘yeah, I’m better than you’” | folk song | roses |
| “literally go nuts” | march | departures |
| “play terribly” | chamber music | bones |
| “deliciously” | symphony | infield |
| “about to burst” | aria | concrete |
| “crazy eyes here” | overture | butterflies |
| “fade out like my hairline” | interstitial | wool |
| “like you’ve been hit by an arrow” | muzak | vanilla |
| “louder than possible” | breakup anthem | vampire |
| “with contempt for imported convertible sports cars” | rumba | shadow |
| “like a naughty, naughty boy “ | waltz | monument |
| “lord have mercy” | outlaw country classic | clock |
| “improvisatory screaming” | death metal | moonlight |
| “tempo di murder” | novelty song | centaur |
| “as roughly as possible” | fugue | pool |
| “gradually becoming a disaster” | yacht rock | hollyhocks |
| “play like you are about to start crying” | tango | chain |
| “obliterate the choir” | hymn | banquet |
| “like 100 tin cans falling out of a Volvo” | dubstep | snow |
Hat tip to the sadly now-defunct Twitter account Threatening Music Notation for many of the phrases above!”
Her Voice is Valley
My own voice
sounds like I’ve been hit by an arrow
in the knee—such plain vanilla shouts,
tone-deaf against her rich lemon pound
cake and his marjoram flakes
quartered and rested, 4/4
time as garnish.
Her voice echoes across the valley,
is the valley,
all honey and syrup and sweet above
while he plucks a thready nyckelharpa below.
I fall silent to let their folk song duet
scatter notes to pace my heartrate.
I smell clover coating newborn
lamb’s wool. The wind stirs a pot
of lavender, salvia, catmint,
yarrow, and ornamental onions,
and steams the stone soup
in dew under my toes.
Her bones are Knock Out roses.
I dance with the petals
raining on my hair.
She weaves with me
as one entity in this wild-violet vale.
Saralyn Caine Poetry 