Next week we meet again for our sixth annual poetry writing retreat at Surfside Beach. Who know when we first met in 2008 that we would be so blessed to have Richard Osler flying down every Fall, like a faithful Canadian goose.Some of us seldom write poetry, except at this time of the year, but somehow Richard manages to turn all of us into really good poets for a few days. It's magic!
So Wednesday Richard issued us a poetry writing challenge to get our juices flowing. Writing poetry (like yoga and prayer) is “unmixed attention”. Richard has
given us an assignment to write a 7 line poem a day for 7 days…and to write
about something that calls our attention.
DAY 1 (October 2, 2014)
I didn’t sleep again last night and spent hours thinking
about my kids and the holidays and how, even if I gave a party, no one
would come. I finally got up feeling lonely, tired, depressed. Who wants me to
write a poem today? OMG, if I write about what I’m paying attention to, we’ll all
fall in a deep dark hole.
“You try to register
in the poem as much of the life you've lived as you can.” So, faithful to the call, I write about what I'm paying attention to.
Life Turns on a Dime
They drop from above my left shoulder, seemingly from no
where
And drift to – or from – seemingly no place in particular.
Their job done, life spent.
Dead leaves and dragonflies floating down the creek.
Is this all there is?
The buzz attack: three of them dive bomb each other, with
two more racing for the feeder.
Hummers are my gift this morning. They make me laugh again.
No comments:
Post a Comment