Things got a little busy, as things are wont to. I’ve not had time to post, but I’ve kept up with the writing, which is the point, after all. đ Prompts from Adele Kenny’s poetry blog have been lifesavers.
Dancing over the edge
Perhaps the wine or faint haze of cigarette smoke made them dizzy, or the low
lighting and flicker of candles felt cave-like and safe, or the steady throb of music
induced a kind of trance: they glided together through song after song, inches
apart but touching, until they couldnât remember any other way to move.
Here are some daffodils from my yard to thank you for reading.
The last couple days’ drafts have been, well, a bit too drafty to post. But here is a derangement of Elizabeth Bishop’s “I Am in Need of Music,” inspired by a prompt at Adele Kenny’s poetry blog: Music.
Harmonic intervention
(after E. Bishop)
Sleep; the moon floats forever still in the sea, fading, sinking; deep through the heart of cool, quiet rest breathes a spell made of melody.
Limbs flush, glow and quiver in dreams of water, falling dead-tired to rest in the sway of some old song, low and liquid.
Oh, for the healing! Clear lips, trembling melody, bitter fingers feel the frets of tainted music:
Stars cloud his face, hidden overhead amid mountains that glow with the bend and change of sorrow. The soul seeks false love, true beauty, and grace of moments deep in shadow. Soft eyes dream of looks read slowly and taken by fire, nodding and grey with sleep, at once old and full.
Taking a cue from my September writing challenge success – and Adele Kenny’s Tip #4 – I may not post every day this month, but I will definitely draft a poem every day. Some drafts simply aren’t ready for public viewing. đ
Year after year the magnolias bloom too soon, and their thick creamy petals liquefy in the late spring freeze then drip from upturned branch tips, hundreds of candles burnt clear down to the socket.
On the cusp of National Poetry Month, I’m excited about focusing (a little more than usual) on poetry for the next 30 days!
I’m also sad because temperatures are expected to drop significantly below freezing the next three nights, and all the plants that have begun blooming and leafing out will be severely damaged. It may seem trivial, but the past twelve months have been difficult, and my capacity for resilience has dropped considerably.
Here are some pictures from my yard, while everything still looks beautiful and alive.
I did it! I wrote a poem every day during the month of September!
You’ll notice I didn’t post a poem for each day; in fact, I stopped posting after September 10. This was another success in that it led directly to the above-mentioned success. By letting go of posting, I freed myself from the double tyrannies of time and quality. More than once I crawled into bed and realized I hadn’t written that day, so I took a few moments to scrawl something in the back of my crossword book. This worked surprisingly well, because I found myself revising when I later transcribed those notes into my writing journal.
I didn’t produce much of great merit, but I learned valuable things about process. Many end-of-the-day scribbles captured poems that had formed in mind earlier and might otherwise have been lost. And because I periodically comb through my writing journal for inspiration, some of those phrases or ideas might yield something better down the road.
All in all, it was a good experience and one I plan to leverage come November, when I’ll piggy-back on the energy of NaNoWriMo to propel my own writing.
Happy October!
A ghost leaf (that’s what I call them) from the neighbor’s sweetgum tree.
We’re a third of the way through September and I’ve managed to compose a poem every day so far. Those short poems have done a good job of keeping my head in the game when I don’t have much time to write.
(Sep 9)
Willow is the emo child of the Deciduous family, bangs forever hanging across her face.
While walking on my street â a street that goes nowhere and leads to nothing, just circles around the neighborhood and back on itself â I saw a pair of crew socks in the road like theyâd fallen off the roof of a car or been dropped.
Separated, slumped, bedraggled, abandoned â I felt as lost as they appeared and as full of unanswered questions.
Yesterday’s poem deserves a post all its own. It was inspired by greeting designs printed by Egg Press, including one from a young woman I first met when she was a baby. To no one’s surprise, she continues to do amazing things. (Nia is also featured in a video on the press web site.)
Hear, now:/Here. Now. (after Sonya Montenegro and Nia Musiba)
Listen. The sun is speaking and we are dancing, hands curved above us, swimming in the star-washed air.
