The poem that I wrote, this morning between 2:30 and close to 4:00 o’clock, is still in its first draft.
The dogs woke me up just after two o’clock, Climbing out of bed to sleep on the floor I can hear the wind gusts rattle windows And on the other side of town The Empire Builder’s whistle blow
I remember when I lived down near the tracks, Fifty years or more ago, sitting on a bench With Charles D–, waiting for his train…
A bit of the flavor, anyhow. Remembering the late 1960s and solitary men waiting for the night train in the upper Midwest, headed for Seattle. Lot of work yet to do on it. The first draft goes on for two or maybe three or four more stanzas. Putting it aside to revise/rewrite during the winter. Maybe get a night photo of the actual train depot, if it’s still there. I haven’t gotten to that area on foot for a couple decades.
When I first woke up, this morning, to let the dogs into the back yard, I heard the gathering of crows in tall trees around the neighborhood. I love their song at the beginning of the day, and again at evening.
Prompt: Write a kimo, an Israeli poetic form that tends to capture a moment (like a photograph in words), using three unrhymed lines with syllable count 10, 7, 6.
The poem that I wrote, this morning between 2:30 and close to 4:00 o’clock, is still in its first draft. UNDER REVISION.
Putting this one aside to revise/rewrite during the winter. Maybe get a night photo of the actual train depot, if it’s still there. I haven’t gotten to that area on foot for a couple decades.
… and wondering how so much time could have gone by. I worked freelance for twice the number of years I was employed by corporations after college graduation. How did I come to be in my seventies? I don’t feel any different.
I take that back. I feel like I am a different me. Can’t remember, really, who I was before I became who I am now. The old refrain…my life is a short, red carpet that rolls up behind me as I continue on.
Perhaps this is a settling. A readjustment to whatever constitutes normal, following the deaths of so many of the people who comprised the framework of my life. And they’ll keep dropping off until such time as I beat someone else to it.
My father, in his later years, spoke often of having lived long enough, meaning, I suppose, that it no longer held attraction for him and he longed to continue on to what comes next. Bored, I think, having lost his context and having no driving incentive to be entertained and having passed the need, interest, curiosity, or necessity for acquiring new knowledge. I share his forebodings but have provided no hostages to fortune. I have reduced the level of external stimulation in my immediate environment. I think that has helped.
Ah, well! There is the matter of NaNoWriMo 2018. I and most of the usual suspects will be attempting to write a new poem for each day of November. Barb will be sending out some helpful (but not mandatory) writing prompts each morning during the month. Those of us who feel inclined will send each day’s poem to everyone on the email group.
I have decided to not clutter this blog with daily poems and pictures, this time around. I’ve done so previously and found it disruptive. What I have done is to wipe out my prior posts &c at theartofdisorder.blogspot.com (after downloading earlier posts) and made a trial run with picture-poem pairings for the last three days of October.
I also have gotten rid of themomentsbetween at blogger.com and am fooling around with ideas for Quiet Spaces with “lizbennefeld” as the URL. I am expecting that the improvements at WordPress may well make it unusable, and so I have discontinued the domain The Art of Disorder, reverting to a free/personal blog there. That should come about by the end of this year. I may also increase my hosting package here and drop the Quilted Poetry domain also, using this space instead for any overflow. Dreamwidth has not so far been a good substitute for LJ, but I am drawn back to it again and again, and I will continue my paid account.
I believe that another cup of hot milk is in order, this time without the added coffee concentrate. I really do have to sleep, tonight.
o my dear!
the flowers refuse to fade
their fragrance cloys
a quiet room with filtered air
a comfy chair and puppies
