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Monday, March 25, 2013

The Poetry Well


My sister once used the phrase, "Your writing well is full." I liked that. I find it to be true. Sometimes my well is full, full of stories, rhymes, words, rhythms, meaning, feeling. I have several notebooks, no particular theme to any of them, mostly they are dedicated to places (bedroom, purse, school bag, car) so I always have a place to put the words. I also write frequently on the computer in a file kept just for my words. Today I really wanted to write a poem, but it never really works that way for me. Poems just come. I might get an idea when they are coming but they are born when they want and I don't seem to have any control over them until they are on the page. I have several unfinished poems in notebooks and on the computer. I say unfinished because they will probably never amount to something that feels right. However, they have good parts, some good words. I keep them. I decided since I wanted a fresh poem so bad maybe I just needed some new inspiration. Needed to see some of my favorite words in a different arrangement. So I made a wordle of several random lines and poems that haven't gone anywhere and hit the "create" button. Here is my wordle:
Then I had some fun. I have to say that some of my favorite word partners are LANDING GRAY, GROUND TODAY, JUST WIND SOMETHING and SAND SONG. There are others, but those all really jumped out. Funny thing though, I couldn't work with them, but this is what I got tonight. You might try making a wordle for inspiration too!

Burning Waters

We watch
burning waters
descending a breeze
from storm lashed waves
that wallow and wheeze
as mist kissed the air
and fog knew and grew
blues and grays landing
on me and you. 

4 comments:

  1. Very rhythmic feel to this poem Bets!
    Great idea to use the wordle for inspiration!
    I just saw how you can have it wordle your whole site on a slice from yesterday! I have never tried to analyze the whole site so it will be neat to try!
    Thanks for sharing your poem!

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  2. I noticed the 'wind & sand song' Betsy. It's great that you worked your process down into a wordle, which spoke a few words to you for your poem. I do love those final two lines, "blues and grays landing/on me and you." Nice!

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  3. This is a great post. I love hearing about your thinking and process. Cool wordle too!

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  4. I like the double gift of this slice - a peek inside your life as a poet + a poem.

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Thanks for the comment love!