Moon. We caught her
out on a limb,
wanting to get away,
early, before daybreak.
I admit it's a blur. You say
for sure you know,
she's going down.
Good morning, Writers.
I know you recognize this is not a poem. It can't be called anything more than an image even though I added someone other than the speaker, and even though I added a conflict , some emotion with words like "I admit," and "it's a blur," "she's out on a limb," and "she's going down." At daybreak I took the blurry photo of the moon and looked to see what I had captured. I started to write. You know the truth. A poem cannot be made with cliche and puns. It's bad writing, but it was fun while it lasted, and it got me started. We have to start with words.
William Stafford and Robert Bly had a conversation where Stafford talked about writing a poem every morning with the first thing that came to his mind. Bly asked him what did he do if it didn't turn out so good. Stafford said, "I lower my standards."
This morning, I lowered my standards, played with words and got started writing.
The main thing is to write every morning. You might get a pearl, but probably not. You might get the real item, a real poem, along about 3:00 p.m. You can't wait until 3:00 though and think the pearl will be sitting there waiting for you. Get started.
Write, Dear Ones. Write, and keep me posted.
