Saturday, January 24, 2009

The weekend

Yesterday was poetry class and our assignment for this time was to write a poem that recreates a memory, pinpointing specific details, creating a mood. Exercise #23 in "Creating Poetry" by John Drury.

Because one of my best friends is very ill right now, and she is most on my mind, I find myself reminiscing about being in Michigan years ago, when we both enjoyed cottages on the lake with our young families. My homework contribution was unfinished; a beginning draft, but is devoted to having time to listen to a rainstorm, the beautiful appleblossoms of spring, walking along the water and seeing the life of the turtle and the snail and the minnows, our favorite local farmer "Peacewood" and his happy greeting and his wonderful organic vegetables, the new kittens born in his barn, eating tomatoes right off the vine - how I love that smell when you break the stem, the smell of the grapes and the yumminess of putting one in your mouth, then there's the smell of the pigs - wow, the summer breezes, listening to the trees, the afternoon rides on the boat, finding the geese on your front lawn - oh dear, and the heron fishing on the shoreline.

Those days are gone, but what memories we have.

2 comments:

butterfly woman said...

Beautiful imagery here, poetry and writing and art can be such wonderful healing tools to tap into our emotions, don't you think? Hope it helps you cope a little better. I could see you doing some sketches with the poem, I see such visions.

Doris said...

What wonderful images to pinpoint memories!