Writing Lab



At my writing lab yesterday (an hour and a half each week dedicated to writing), I decided I would use the time to write "one bad poem," a practice that I (sadly) have been slipping away from because of the novel rewrite. I fumbled around for longer than I care to admit, then picked up POEMCRAZY by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge. I read her chapter, "coyote and the wild," and then I wrote this. I like it even if it is bad.

LEAVING FOR WORK, EARLY MORNING

"A poet needs to keep his wilderness inside him." -Stanley Kunitz

This spring the apple blossoms
hang over the driveway

heavy as storm clouds,
so sodden with rain

they bump against my head
as I open the car door. How far

from my wilderness have I wandered
that this mad dash

from front stoop to car
is all of nature I'm allowed?

It will be dark before I'm done with work.
I slide into the car and slam

the door behind me. One drop
of rainwater drips onto my nose,

trickles down. In the instant
before I turn the key in the ignition

I hear Coyote howl.

Comments

  1. I like this poem, it's real; dash, slam, sodden, dark - a day in the life of...........many in the Northwest this spring

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  2. Carolynne -- welcome home. We're in a pattern of sun (beautiful, sparkly) and then three days of rain ...

    I was hoping you'd notice the Epictetus, too, which Anne Tyler quotes in Noah's Compass. I looked it up!

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