new floruit?

recently i went to a conference of mormon women writers and had several versions of the same conversation with different people, all inspired by the the question: do you find time to write? when i mention my two tiny daughters they nod knowingly. so, not much time.

as much as i would like to have "a bit of earth," {time to grow my written thoughts}, i think Bim wants me to have it even more. he is always devising schemes to carve out an hour for me here and there...schemes that usually fail because of life interfering. but he hasn't given up yet and i do get some precious hours in the morning.

so i thought i'd get back to a little poetry talk here. practical poetry talk, even. below is the product of one of my hour-long sessions when i lock myself in my room and put on my headphones and ignore the other three members of my family.

i'll pick it apart in a subsequent post to show something about poetry, and then later i'll do the same with a finished, published poem by someone i admire. not to compare, because that might make me feel bad, but to show different things. it's an exercise designed to help me, but maybe some of you are interested in writing poetry too? or maybe {like me} you have a voyeur's interest in how poems are put together. this only shows you my methods, but over the years i've drawn ideas from other more successful writers and poets. think of it as a poor man's How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry.

in this exercise i took an overheard phrase that caught my attention {this is sometimes called "found poetry"} and worked around it. rather than producing a finished poem, an exercise like this will often launch you into something inventive and interesting that could be molded, through a series of restructuring drafts, into a poem. it's the easiest, and possibly the most fun part of creating a poem because you can--or rather, have to--give yourself the freedom to put down anything you want.

the phrase here is: "the marriage is invalidated."

A Unity of Opposites

In case of fire, flood or indecency, the marriage is invalidated.
When your library card expires, the marriage is invalidated.
If the party of the first parties without the party of the second,
the marriage is invalidated.
When there is a loophole, that is the loophole. For instance,
If an alien nation reaches us first, the marriage is invalidated.
If he wishes it, if she dreams of flowering vines, if their children are gymnasts,
If fantasy bears the burden of hope, if fish can be made to wear pajamas,
if the path up is identical to the path down,
If the river stands still for your second step,
Then you have started off knowing everything and ended with nothing,
and the marriage is invalidated.
If the left side slags when the right side smiles, if the meaning is obscure,
if the philosopher weeps; in case of stroke, dementia or diameter,
night soil, raccoons, puttering in the yard after dark, building with nails and putty;
If nothing is where you put it down, if you can’t break free of yourself,
if your hand is trapped in the shape of a hand, if you cry out,
Who is Hericlitus to show his teeth?
Then the marriage is invalidated, the misanthrope jogs on his wheel,
and the green seed pushes against the crust to bend, bow, break, blossom.