{"id":4303,"date":"2021-12-23T00:30:03","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=4303"},"modified":"2021-12-23T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:30:08","slug":"begin-with-a-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/23\/begin-with-a-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Begin with a Question"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Begin with a question<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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By Marjorie Maddox<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u2013poetry prompt, How to Write a Poem, <\/em>Tania Runyan<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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But why? By dawn, the day already<\/p>

brims with answers: Yes, you may question<\/p>

the universe; no, God will not answer;<\/p>

yes, a double negative could mean maybe<\/p>

this strange world cowers inside another Yes\u2014<\/p>

or not. What a knot of not knowing creates our No\u2019s,<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

affirmation its own negation of belief\u2014\u201cNo,<\/p>

I do believe your unbelief\u201d\u2014the tangles already<\/p>

tugged and tied into a complicated Yes<\/p>

that dons its technicolored coat of questions<\/p>

drenched in sunrise. I am awash with hope. Maybe<\/p>

that, too, shimmers more in the morning, the answers<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

lighting the air like leftover fireflies. But answer<\/p>

me this before I leap too quickly back to my No:<\/p>

Will the trill of this blue jay calm my Maybe\u2019s<\/p>

only until noon when the world\u2019s news already\u2014<\/p>

more often than not\u2014overtakes me with questioning<\/p>

despair. I walk out into this morning of Yes<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

and breathe what I need of silence. You are the Yes<\/p>

I want, the clear but not simple answer<\/p>

to this moment, now, before this mind you created questions<\/p>

the brightness of your burning bush, even as I know<\/p>

too well the power of heat, my heart already<\/p>

taking off its sandals of Maybe<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

to bow low this singed soul. It may be<\/p>

this, too, is another form of Yes,<\/p>

the step toward or away already<\/p>

the movement of prayer that answers<\/p>

that nightfall of what we cannot know,<\/p>

that forest we cannot see amidst such branching questions.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d you question<\/p>

and leave no\/much room for tangled Maybe\u2019s.<\/p>

My feet and mind shift. \u201cBe still and know. . . .\u201d<\/p>

This morning the lilies bloom \u201cYes!\u201d<\/p>

The newspaper\u2019s other answers<\/p>

merely crackle in the background, already<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

a No turned question,<\/p>

already a Maybe<\/p>

with Yes the answer.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Winner of America Magazine’s 2019 Foley Poetry Prize, Cornell University Sage Graduate Fellow (MFA), and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Lock Haven University, <\/em>Marjorie Maddox<\/strong> has published 13 collections of poetry\u2014including <\/em>Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation<\/a>\u00a0(Yellowglen Prize);\u00a0<\/em>True, False, None of the Above<\/a>\u00a0(Illumination Book Award Medalist); <\/em>Local News from Someplace Else<\/a>; <\/em>Perpendicular As I<\/a> (Sandstone Book Award),\u00a0<\/em>Begin with a Question<\/a> (Paraclete Press, March 2022), and <\/em>Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For\u2014an ekphrastic collaboration with photographer Karen Elias\u2014(Shanti Arts Publishing, March 2022); the short story collection <\/em>What She Was Saying<\/a>\u00a0(Fomite); four children\u2019s and YA books\u2014including\u00a0<\/em>Inside Out: Poems on Writing and Reading Poems with Insider Exercises<\/a> (Finalist Children\u2019s Educational Category 2020 International Book Awards), and <\/em>A Crossing of Zebras: Animal Packs in Poetry;\u00a0<\/em>I\u2019m Feeling Blue, Too! <\/a>(<\/u>a 2021 NCTE Notable Poetry Book)\u2014Common Wealth:<\/a><\/em> Contemporary<\/a> Poets on Pennsylvania<\/a> (co-editor);\u00a0<\/em>Presence<\/a>: A Journal of Catholic Poetry\u00a0(assistant editor); and 650 stories, essays, and poems in journals and anthologies. The recipient of numerous awards, she gives workshops and readings around the world. For more information, please see\u00a0www.marjoriemaddox.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“Begin with a Question”<\/strong> previously appeared in <\/em>Christianity and Literature and is forthcoming in <\/em>Begin with a Question (Paraclete, March 2022). To pre-order the book, visit the publisher\u2019s website here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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