Today’s [optional prompt] for NaPoWriMo, Day 19: “to write a paragraph that briefly recounts a story, describes the scene outside your window, or even gives directions from your house to the grocery store. Now try erasing words from this paragraph to create a poem or, alternatively, use the words of your paragraph to build a new poem.”
Process:
So, early this morning, I wrote the paragraph below, which described what I saw while sitting in my usual kitchen spot. I didn’t change it, except to add the last line—because the sun did come out—briefly. This became the paragraph part of the haibun. Then I used Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday prompt words for the haiku. I used “accruing” for gather and “feathery” for soft. This was to give me new words, so I was not simply revising.
Finally, I took words from both parts of the haibun to create a new poem. Works in progress!
Poems:
Outside the world is grey with mist, and yet the green of evergreens and new spring growth provides color in the gloom. A red-breasted finch sits in the bird feeder at the window. The cats take their morning naps, one on my lap, the other in the basket in front of the window. Soon, children will walk out their doors to go to school. But now, I see the sun breaking from the clouds.
pale sun shines through
turning feathery clouds gold
accruing spring light
Grey and green
the world from my window,
feathery, the mist, drifting between trees.
But what colors does the red-breasted finch see?
Greyer greys and emerald greens,
vivid hues–
to me unseen?
I hear him sing—
such heartfelt joy–
as the pale sun caresses,
draping his shadowed shape with light,
turning his chest to fire,
to ring in the colors of spring
Isn’t this document box with finch exquisite?
Document Box, Philadelphia Museum of Art
And I’m going to link this to dVerse Open link night, too, where Grace is poet bar tending. Because, why not? 🙂
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