My schedule is a bit off today, but it's for good reasons. We were out later than usual last night, seeing neighborhood friends for a mostly socially distanced, back yard get together. I woke up at my usual time, however--and then I started writing a poem, a longer one. My poetry efforts for months have been more like trying to spin a single image into a poem and feeling stymied when nothing much happens.
Was it a Facebook post or a tweet that talked about redwoods burning. Ordinarily, I might get lost in the muck of the daily news, but suddenly, I had an idea for a poem.
My poem began with this thought: I have waited too long to see the redwoods. But I was also hearing a podcaster talk about a panda at the National Zoo being pregnant--as long as the panda's body doesn't absorb the baby, which sometimes happens. I resisted getting lost in an Internet black hole by looking for more details, so I can't say much more about panda pregnancies.
The poem went in interesting ways. I sat and wrote a few lines, then did something else, and then another few lines came to me 10 minutes later. I wrote them down, did something else--and then, fifteen minutes later, another few lines. I decided to postpone my morning walk because I didn't want to disrupt the process.
I thought about not going for a walk at all, but I could see this morning had better breeziness. It's been such a sultry week in terms of a lack of breeze. So, off I went, a bit later than usual. How strange to see the neighborhood when I can see the neighborhood. My usual morning cohort of 6 a.m. walkers have all been commenting about how dark it is in the morning.
As I walked, I thought of a few more lines, as I noticed how many people have put their houses on the market, while also noticing how many people are putting additions onto their houses and cottages.
It's been over an hour now, and no new lines have come. Is the poem done? Perhaps. Or maybe some new poems are making their way to be next.
I am so happy to be writing something with potential again.
1 comment:
Glad you are writing! I was just thinking how lucky we were to have been able to go to Big Basin Redwoods Park a couple years ago! Majestic. When they say the park is "gone," I think it means the park headquarters and buildings. My hope is that some/many of the trees will have survived, as they have survived fires before. But so much is lost, and so much at risk.
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