Sunday, December 07, 2008

Drafty on an icy day

When I got up this morning it was six degrees outside. Six! At least it was above zero. I had to go next door to feed the neighbor's parakeet, and when I stepped outside for just a moment the just-risen sun was brilliant on snowy lawns, rabbit tracks laced the driveway like some kind of manic notation, and starlings were proclaiming whatever it is they proclaim in their arpeggiated chatter. For just a moment the sky opened up to blue, blue, blue. For just a moment I understood how winter can be beautiful. Then I came to my senses and hustled my frozen fingers and toes indoors.

It's up to 22 degrees now. Heat wave!

* * * * *

Finished reading the new book of prose poems by Carol Guess, Tinderbox Lawn. Great, great stuff. So many lines I'd love to quote at all y'all. What I really love about it right now, though, is what she does with narrative. The book definitely has a narrative (I don't want to use that overused word arc), but it's fractured and laced with gaps -- it's like a cracked window, only all we can see is the actual cracks and from that we're left to understand the shape and heft of the window itself. The courage it takes to tell a story but leave so much for the reader to gather -- that's inspiring me to leave a lot more gaps in my own current project, to tell a little less of the story, let it be a little more lyric & a little less narrative. Which is good, I think.

Anyway, it is a terrific book, sexy and wise and unexpected. Highly recommended.

* * * * *

A quick little draft, which will disappear about when the half-inch of snow remaining on my lawn disappears (that would be tomorrow sometime):


[poof!]

4 comments:

Leslie said...

You caught them all
whether on their way up or down


I love that part especially. Good poem.

Montgomery Maxton said...

lovely poem. you mentioned before you hate coming up with titles, but this time you hit the target. LOVE the title.

Anne Haines said...

Thanks, you guys! (MM - really? I had NO clue what to call this one and sat there staring at it for a good 15 minutes before coming up with this title... funny!)

Jessie Carty said...

Argh. I missed the poem but I am reading "Breach" right now :) You have a gift for titles!

We woke up to 63 degree weather in Charlotte today? wt?