(Joseph MacRae, February 26, 2025, feast day of Our Lady of the Fields (Paris). Image from my journal.)
Bear’s To-Do List
If only I could remember where I hid my honey jar
safe from prying eyes.
I now regret it is only safe from me.
Oh, the moment I find my precious honey jar —
I'll be a rich bear indeed.
*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by these words: if, regret, rich. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Lines, February 26, 2025.
Our True Spirit Rises*
The poets, they understand —
Keep writing.
Against bird flu, doom scrolling, anything
makes you think there is no hope.
Close your eyes, some simple verses
sky, she sweeps
earth flowers — reaps
It will get your mind off your troubles.
Not dwelling but creating. Growing
in Light — a remedy in wait.
Take daily.
*Title is quoted from Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury.
*From prompt: Reflect on this past year's engagement in Daisy Barrett Nash's Legacy Lines (Writers at Play), what stands out? February 12, 2025.
(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from February 5, 2025, feast day of the The Elets-Chernigov (Chernigov Spruce Tree) Icon of the Mother of God. Image from here.)
How to Make Peace
Start at home.
Start simply.
Mend bitterness, quarrels, disagreements with I love you. I forgive you.
Please forgive me. May God forgive the both of us.
Reach out at work. Don't be afraid to say I'm sorry for what happened
the other day — the greening with envy, seeing red, white lies.
Give forgiveness, if you would receive forgiveness.
Love your family, neighbors, your co-workers. Yes, even the one
who always sneaks the last cookie, snags your parking spot.
Love and forgiveness, it is a beginning.
*Freewrite as inspired by Audre Lorde’s “The Cancer Journals” (from Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy lines, January 29 and February 5, 2025)
(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from January 15, 2025, feast day of Our Lady of Banneux and Our Lady of the Seeds, Image from here.)
Voice of Earth Mother
Listen to her
winds caress
the tall fir trees,
rocking to and fro
branches flowing
I close my eyes --
imagine a ballet performed
on nature’s stage
*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury”. From Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy Lines series, January 15, 2025.
((Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from January 8, 2025, (above) afterfeast of Theophany, Synaxis of the Theotokos old calendar. Image from here.)
When Returning
(from city’s chaos, speed),
I stop on Mary’s Peak wayside.
Shut off the engine
and radio.
Roll down the window.
Smell the mountain air.
I absorb the green forest —
She fights for survival
like us all.
*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by “A Litany for Survival” by Audre Lorde, and highlighted words from it. From Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy Lines series, January 8, 2025
Opening this book
and coming up on the author's advice to the reader
and seeing the original reader (a child, her name is June, last name faded, circa 1930's) perhaps response to this challenge -- below is my "finishing" of it...
(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from September 4, 2024, New Moon of Elul and the (above) Unburnt Bush Icon of the Mother of God. Image from here.)
Bear-Love
Love is a pot of honey
Pooh bear would understand —
Inner sweetness.
Who’s guarding your jar?
[Note:Sticky paw prints throughout the kitchen,
they were planted I tell you, planted!
They’re not from me.]
*From prompt: freewrite as inspired by “love is ___”, after considering Edwin Morgan's The Unspoken. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Lines (Writers at Play), September 4, 2024.
(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from August 28, 2024, feast day of the Dormition of the Mother of God (old calendar) and Our Lady of Kiev. Image from here.)
Standing Helm Watch Today
Standing Helm watch today
one hand on a tiny joystick
watching a Dell computer screen.
See a red line scrolling through a digital map.
No need for a compass.
Just like a computer game, just like a computer game.
Not many of us remember
running on dead Reckoning.
I long to be back on an old wooden vessel
standing my watch as the propeller turns.
Thrusting water against the rudder, can feel it against the wheel.
Gently rocking in your hands, gently rocking in your hands.
Steering by a compass
Reading your charts
Using the aid of lighthouses, landmarks
Reading the buoys
Using radio direction to find beacons
No need for them today, no need for them today.
Now we have GPS
Global repositioning system.
A plotter on our onboard screen.
So with the passing of time
is the passing of a romantic era
In an old Sailor's life, in an old sailor's life.
*From prompt: Write of something longed for, past, present, or future (in this case the longing for miracles). Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Lines (Writers at Play), August 28, 2024.
(Joseph MacRae, July 6, 2022. Image is of The Merc, from Joseph MacRae.)
I: I Could Write About
I (pronoun): …12th century, a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative
I could write about living in our tiny rural town, Alsea, Oregon–-just 234 souls. Unincorporated, and like being in the 50’s. There’s John Boy’s Mercantile (the Merc), an old timey general store. History murals fill the outer walls, inside there’s fishing and hunting gear, fresh local meats at the deli. Though remote, we’re on a big cycle route. Sometimes the Merc’s little parking lot near bursts with Harleys, their riders scoring coffee for the road. Or there's Deb’s Cafe (true confession can’t get enough of the biscuits and gravy). There’s a library, out its window can see cows a stone’s throw away–- if you stare they’ll stare back! There’s the Church, school, medical clinic, post office, fire station, grange, organic farm, park, mountains round, birds roaming about--otherwise a whole lot of quiet--and the Alsea river running through it all. And that’s about it. But then, what more do you need?
*From Prompt: Create a “Telling Trails” piece (basically to take a letter/a word beginning with that letter/a definition of that word/a picture drawn to/maybe a song drawn to--and write what comes); from Iris Jackson’s Finding Your Storyteller’s Voice with Telling Trails (Pat Conroy Literary Center, Beaufort, SC), June/July 2022.
(Joseph MacRae, published in Legacy lines: Poems inspired by LGBTQI+ Poets of the Past, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, April, 2025. Prompt from July 24, 2024, feast day of the Rzevsk Mother of God (also honors Saint Nicolas of Myra, who we jokingly refer to as the Saint of anger management, his having slapped Arius when the man spoke heresy). Image from here.)
A Bear’s Guide to Anger Management
A walk in nature, it is a cure -– a troubled soul’s repair.
We long to walk in God’s creation, primordial clay.
And we live in a circle of ancient trees, now only small remnants — rare.
And me? I’m a Sleepytime Bear -– sometimes a Raging Bear,
my wife will tell you she lives with a bear.
A fledgling crow outside, entangled in vines and string — now free.
I give it a toss, takes flight
and away.
*From prompt: Freewrite a couple minutes on a series of prompt words, each thought continuing the next, then consider Radcliffe ‘s poem __ and reconstruct your poem to her ABCCB structure and rhyme scheme. From Daisy Barrett Nash’s Legacy Lines series, July 24, 2023.
When the gutter fills with falling rain
stream’s flow lets the flowers grow.
Sense the cooling of a spring storm
pulse of life newly bestowed.
Such beauty I must admire
pale green leaves, sky rimmed with gold.
Heads up from the sands, open your
eyes. What was hidden — unfolds!
*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall’s quote “The world hid its head in the sands of convention so that by seeing nothing it might avoid truth”, then format after Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall’s “Tramping Poem”, with an eye to using the comfort of rhyme scheme to make the expression of charged issues easier for readers to receive. From Daisy Barrett Nash's Writers at Play, Legacy Lines series, June 3, 2024.
When the gutter flows
from falling rain
on the ground it goes
as every flower knows.
I sense the freshness of
a cool morning rain
that Heaven bestows
to let the flowers grow.
In admiration we watch
the beauty unfold
in shades of red and blue
purple and gold.
Lift up your heads from
the sands and open
your eyes — See the
seed that was hidden
now blooms to Life!
*From combined prompt: Freewrite as inspired by a series of three words, given one at a time, letting the next word naturally continue the piece, without overthinking it. The three words were: gutter, sense and admiration; and freewrite as inspired by this quote from "Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall: "The world hid its head in the sands of convention so that by seeing nothing it might avoid truth." From Daisy Barrett Nash's Writers at Play, Legacy Lines series, May 27, 2024.
(Joseph MacRae, May 21, 2024, feast day of the “Tenderness” Icon of the Mother of God from the Pskov Caves, whose image is above, from here.)
Back to the Way
Loneliness can be your friend or your foe. When you long for your loved ones, lonliness is your foe. In the deep dark forest the lonliness is your friend. In the deep dark forest the lonliness is your friend.
Technology has gone way too far.
It's now taken control of our minds and our lives.
Lets go on back to the way it once was.
I long to go back to the way I was raised.
Without technology--I was raised
without technology.
I look forward to the celebration when Christ will return.
The earth will tremble in fear, the trumpets will sound.
We’ll fall to the ground in prostration
to worship the Lord–-
This will be our best and our last celebration!
*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by a series of three words, given one at a time, letting the next word naturally redirect you without overthinking it. The three words were: lonliness, technology, and celebration. From Daisy Barrett Nash's Writers at Play, Legacy Lines series, May 20, 2024.
(Guest posted from Wendy birde to Joseph bear, on his birthday : ) Image from here . ) Have Yourself a Merry Little Birthday* Have yourse...
