Poetry Friday, Week 40: Hiatus Over

10/3/2025

Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme is celebrating a lot: a new book, a book festival all while hosting today.
I hadn't planned to be on hiatus but it happened. Family, traveling, a bout of some stomach virus, and suddenly it's October! I'm glad to be back.

Save the Date! I'm hosting on October 31, 2025!
You're invited to share spooky or autumn drenched poems. On October 17, 2025, I will have some fun Edgar Allen Poe prompts for you.
Share them on Halloween!

In September, Georgia Heard hosted Pulitzer Prize Winner, Marie Howe, to discuss her new book, New and Selected Poems. She introduced to us (and very new to me) T.S. Eliot’s concept of objective correlative. And had us write.
T.S. Eliot used this phrase to describe “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion” that the poet feels and hopes to evoke in the reader (“Hamlet,” 1919). There must be a positive connection between the emotion the poet is trying to express and the object, image, or situation in the poem that helps to convey that emotion to the reader. Read More

I also wrote a golden shovel based on one of the poems from this book. You can find it here.

We spent time writing what we noticed in our spaces, It's a challenge that I want to try because not inserting the emotions takes practice. And yet the images give emotions. Her comment:
"Trust the images!" is on that I'm going to hang in my room.

In the Room Called Divine Chaos

Newly painted 4 x 4 squares are drying on the table
My watch vibrates, I don’t check it
Painted papers stacked in a tower this way and that. Will they topple?
I yawn three times. I napped earlier in the day.
The dolls and stuffies sit on the bookshelf with blank eyes
I hear my husband in the other room talking on the phone
My watch vibrates, I don’t check it

©jone rush macculloch, 2025, Draft

8 Comments

Matt Esenwine

10/3/2025 11:47:41 am

Intriguing poem, Jone - thanks for sharing this concept of objective correlative - had never heard of it!

Tabatha

10/3/2025 01:01:49 pm

How fun that you will be hosting on Halloween! I wrote a poem about a Scottish waulking song that will appear in the Last Stanza Poetry Journal in a couple of weeks. Have you heard of Nan MacKinnon? She was the inspiration. She's amazing.

Jane link

10/3/2025 01:02:48 pm

I dislike how attached I've become to my phone, jumping to respond to every ping and vibration. I look forward to the spooky Halloween edition of Poetry Friday!

Linda Mitchell

10/4/2025 04:17:02 am

Ooooooh, Halloween host. That's delicious. I think something Raven-inspired might be in store. What a neat concept the idea of objective correlative. I need to dig into that a bit more. I'm doing the comic poetry class on Monday. Will you be there?

Mary Lee

10/4/2025 01:45:49 pm

Good job ignoring your watch!

PATRICIA J FRANZ link

10/5/2025 04:40:17 pm

So intriguing -- both the topic and your poem, Jone. A mystery that draws me in. I will "dwell in the unknown." :)

Margaret G Simon

10/6/2025 04:59:18 am

When you are in creative flow, it’s easy to ignore the watch. Thanks for sharing what you learned in this workshop. I try to make images speak of emotions, but sometimes they get lost in the jumble of a draft. We often want to lean on “telling” rather than “showing.”

Carol Varsalona link

10/6/2025 09:27:51 am

Jone, my batteries are dead in my watch but I don't really notice not wearing the watch.
I look forward to Halloween at your blog.

Poetry Friday, Week 40: Hiatus Over

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