National Poetry Month Day Fifteen

word group: archway--silence--pause--return/go

Through the stone archway
     pocked with age
She wanders silently
     beneath the gaze of a full moon.
She enters a courtyard
     paved with ancient rocks
between them grow rigid grass
     and a history of stories.
Each footfall in the silence
     echoes against the stories
as if those long gone
     sing into the night.
In the center she stills
     listens and feels sweet air
as the cries of those long gone
     have returned home.
She waits till silence settles
     and the secrets return to the cracks
in the stone walls
     where no one ventures.
    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

National Poetry Month--Day Ten

word group: snow--mountains--trails--tears SPRING TEARS along mountain trails she walks alone hunched into the raw wind arms braced at her chest bare feet leave love notes in new fallen snow her tears freeze on ivory cheeks so she never forgets what happened last summer when this mountain wore a lush blanket of green and the sky shouted happiness like the lone wolf who watches her cry-- his teeth bared
Read more

WRITING AT 30,000 FEET

I discovered a writing secret on my recent trip to LA. In the 757 aircraft the pressure equalizes, the lights dim, and the white noise of the engines is so loud it feels like it's coming from deep inside my own body. I've heard the safety instructions, eaten my take on board lunch, since sandwiches on the plane are too costly, and I've drunk enough water to keep me from getting a dehydration headache. I have also read several chapters in the novel I brought along on vacation and listened to Adele's album on my i-pod. There are several hours left of this cross country flight. I take out the spiral notebook I am using to write first draft chapters of my novel and here is where the secret reveals itself. Stuck in the plane at 35,000 feet about mountains and streams, nestled into the narrow, even for me, seat of the plane, strapped to my seat with few distractions, the story comes to me like a film on a 3-D screen. My characters' voices speak in my head, the movements
Read more

WRITERS' BLOCK

I am not so arrogant to say I never get writers' block but I'm learning to call it by different names. Some days it's just laziness and lack of interest in my project. Other days it's strong resistance to work and thinking. Resistance is like a stone wall I have to barrel through--it hurts my head but releases me from the bonds of idleness. I've read that "writing begets more writing," and I believe it's true. It's like priming the verbal pump with a trickle of good sentences. When the block comes in the guise of procrastination there's only one thing to do--sit at my desk, whip out a spiral notebook and my favorite purple pen and start writing. When I encounter the block of badly written sentences and characters that fall flat I have to force myself not to quit writing. If I keep going, tossing my lack of confidence out the door, I find dialogue, characterization, and settings building and scenes stretch out over several pages. Maybe not
Read more