Hurricane Hauntings

I woke up before I meant to--I had a coughing fit and found myself fully awake.  I got up thinking I might go back to sleep, but as is often the case, I didn't.  I spent some time looking through my poetry notebooks from October 2017 to now; one of my goals for this year is to type more of my finished drafts into the computer.

I am struck by all the hurricane imagery in these poems, which is no real surprise--Hurricane Irma came through in September of 2017.  I'm still seeing hurricane damage mainly in terms of trees that are permanently bent and roof repairs in various states of progress.  Of course, I also see the trees that aren't there, like the beautiful frangipani tree that I saw on my way driving to and from work.  I had looked forward to growing old with some of those trees, but now, they're gone.  And of course, because of the hurricane, along with reports of faster sea level rise than expected, we're rethinking those retirement plans too.

It's been a delightful morning.  I often wonder if I wake up early because I so treasure these early mornings of creativity.  I suspect that's true.

Of course, our evenings are lovely too.  Last night we ate supper on the porch--it's dark now when we do that.  But I don't mind.  We have a variety of lights on a hurricane wrecked table that we moved to a corner of the front porch:  fairy lights in wine bottles and candles lit by batteries.  Our Advent wreath has stayed on the porch too, and last night, my spouse lit those candles. As the arches of our front porch were lit by various flickers, it felt very much like we were camping in an abandoned chapel.

Now it's off to spin class and a full day preparing for a routine visit by state auditors on Monday.