poetry writing

My Favorite Problem: a Poem

I have never showered
in grief –
I guess that’s one of my favorite problems.
I can’t vow that my hands are good for anything.
My fingers are usually too numb
to hold a pen for long,
& yet,
I try to craft poetry and art out of thin air.

I took a train west, thinking running
might solve my problems.
I flew out east.
I never know if I’m running toward or from,
I guess that’s one of my favorite problems, too.

I’ll try to settle down for a while.
I never thought I’d be stable,
but sometimes, I wake up forgetting the past.
Sometimes, I wake up forgetting you.
Infinity paralyzes people sometimes;
the prospect of forever can intimidate.
I just want to remember who I was
before all the casualties of running.

I’ll try to settle down for a while.
I never thought I’d be stable,
but sometimes,
I wake up forgetting the past.
Sometimes, i wake up forgetting you.
I never know if i’m running toward or
from,
I guess that’s one of my favorite problems, too.

I try to craft poetry and art out of thin air.
I guess that’s one of my favorite problems.

Can you distort what I’ve forgotten,
take this blurry snapshot,
and turn it into something real?
Can you distort this blurry snapshot
and make it your favorite problem?

Isabelle Palerma

“Come into my Parlor,” said the Spider to the Fly: a Halloween Poem

The prompt was, “Write a poem about spiderwebs.”

Spiders wait in corners
of intricate webs —
their trappings
lovely
by design.
Once, I thought,
“What a fool to be stuck,”
but now,
older
(and none the wiser, by any means),
I see their elaborations
and think myself a fly.

Isabelle Palerma

Before the Storm: a Poem

Scratch the line that burns me
like the arsonist who tried to silence my voice
with smoke.
I swallowed the smolder,
but the syllables turned to ash against my broken
teeth.
The world pleaded for silence, but I raised my voice.
The world asked for quiet,
and in exchange,
I gave it my voice sharpened to a blade.
Don’t ask for cotton when all you gave me were
scars.
Beware the silence you begged for –
it’s simply the calm before the storm.

Isabelle Palerma

Rain, Changing Seasons, & Hiraeth: “Ghost Line” Poems

In March of 2009, the poet Rachel McKibbens introduced the poetry community to the concept of the “ghost line”. McKibbens defines the ghost line as “an inspiring line or image that becomes the unseen first line of a poem”.

The poet Ollie Schminkey provided their readers with a poetry prompt on April 9, 2025.

The prompt is as follows:

Use a line of a lyric from a song you have been listening to as a ghost line.

Here are a few more “ghost line” poems.

i: rain

These shapes I see in the darkness all conform
to your figure
and your cologne is like petrichor but faint.
I think if I listen to the silence long enough,
I can hear you whisper my name.
(Don’t tell anyone –
they’d think I belong in bedlam.)

But, as I trace raindrops along my windows,
I remember scribbling in my Latin book,
Amantes sunt amuntes –
lovers are lunatics –
and it doesn’t take the taste of rain to know
the truth.

I’ll continue to watch the raindrops trickle down
and chase shadows in the dark,
but I won’t surrender to the madness
because this is love and every silent evening,
I whisper to see if I can hear your echo.

ii: changing seasons

Here we are, chasing these temporary highs
like nightcrawlers leaning close to their radios,
begging for a fix,
but in a sad state of panic,
you told me you thought your blood froze to ice
(and you said you didn’t want to self-destruct
to stay warm).

I offered you a cigarette,
but you shook your head and said,
“I don’t want a solution for my problems –
just someone who can commiserate.”

So, we went outside in autumn
and watched the leaves change colors for a while.
You told me,
“It’s nice to remember that even dying can be
beautiful
for some.”

iii: hiraeth

Every broken bone I never set right
aches on me
as though I have been falling asleep in airports.
I’m never where I want to be
because I swear, I don’t know where I want to be.
Is it homesickness, even if you don’t know
where your home is?

I traveled a thousand miles from here
just to end up back in this wasteland
and I booked a train ride
out of town
because a girl with straw-blonde hair
read from the Rider-Waite tarot deck,
telling me to leave this city behind.

(But everything hurts when I remember
the details.)

I watch it all like it’s a dream.
I pretend it’s not my life,
but that has to stop.

Everything hurts like an unexplained car crash,
but even though I’m a thousand miles away,
I’m the one behind the wheel.
(And is it homesickness,
even if you’re already home?)

Isabelle Palerma

Softening, Out-of-Focus Romance, & Love Extinguished: Three “Ghost Line” Poems.

In March of 2009, the poet Rachel McKibbens introduced the poetry community to the concept of the “ghost line”. McKibbens defines the ghost line as “an inspiring line or image that becomes the unseen first line of a poem”.

The poet Ollie Schminkey provided their readers with a poetry prompt on April 9, 2025.

The prompt is as follows:

Use a line of a lyric from a song you have been listening to as a ghost line.

i: softening

Before they exhume our bodies
from this cold hard earth,
I will make a subtle plea,
begging you to quiet that nest
you have woven in your skull.
(Silence the birds or hornets or whomever
comes to roost
in the twigs and branches there.)

Before they dig our bodies
from this cemetery ground,
I will make a hushed demand.
Relax your body beside me.
Your skeleton is crafted of exquisite granite,
but I remember when it was bone.
Soften, my love,
and be still.

ii: out-of-focus romance

This twig and branch nest sculpture is home
to a part of me I have never named.
Creatures who blur the edges of memory
when a lover is involved.
(It’s not that I don’t remember –
it just becomes out-of-focus
like a dream.)

This is what happens when you have been raised
on tawdry romances and inescapable dreams.

*Photos via Yaroslav Shuraev, Daria Liudnaya, & Natalia Naitkevich.*

iii: love extinguished

These wraiths might not catch breath
as they dance along cobblestone,
but, so long as I am here
with you, my love,
none of the rest matters.

I have diaries scrawled with messages
of love,
dedicated to the creatures
who have blurred the edges
of my memories.

Yet I watch the apparitions
and know the truth.
I have you, and you have me.
(We are here among tombstones,
and love like ours cannot be extinguished.)