4 April 2013

NaPoWriMo Poem 4 - Seven Glances at Time


Photo: Natasha Douglas
   


Seven Glances at Time 

1.
The tock of the wipers
the long rain sliding
the road
unwinding


2.
A view
A haze
A mist
A cloud
A fog
A wall


3.
Inside a box, coiled tight,
there is all possibility –  
blue with stars.


4.
Sometimes the air is so still that even
the clock
stops breathing.


5.
A breath and a breath and a breath
and a breath and


6.
Years unspooling –
       the clack of cine film
                                             flicker
you flare
             and falter
years ago


7.
The way
minutes pucker the surface.
How, suddenly, my grandmother’s fingers
are holding
this pen.

Sally Douglas


The prompt for this came from Jo Bell, via Twitter (@Jo_Bell). The task was to read Wallace Stevens' poem 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird', and then to look at something else thirteen ways. This was quite a challenge for me because Stevens and his blackbirds seemed to be at my shoulder, whispering all the time! I did write thirteen ways, but decided the whole thing needed cutting back for the sake of the poor reader.  If I were to do this exercise again I'd write about something a lot less abstract, but I had the one initial image-based idea (which ironically was one of the bits I cut) and that dictated the subject without me really having a say in the matter.     

Not the greatest thing I have ever written, but the point of doing this month of writing was to break the block, so up it goes into the world.                                  

6 comments:

  1. actually i like it, lots of images. i dont quite understand where you are or what you are looking at but that doesnt matter because i can interpret it differently each time i read it from my own experiences. excellent, keep up the PoWriting!

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  2. lol, sorry being stupid. after third reading it slides into perspective. love the last stanza particularly.

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  3. Thanks, Jude - glad you like it. Thanks for commenting!

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  4. I think it works great. I like the surprise at the end. And I enjoyed your notes on what you did and why.

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  5. Thanks, Elly. I'm glad you like the notes. It's quite difficult for me to release a poem so quickly in the process of writing, so adding the notes on that process makes me feel a little bit more secure! It's definitely got me going again though. Without the NaPoWriMo impetus to produce something every day I would still be obsessing over poem one - if I'd ever even started it!

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  6. Thanks for the inspiration... This morning's poem is definitely the result of reading yours yesterday. (I've credited you on the blog but it's nice to say a personal Thank You).
    Like you I'm not used to putting a poem straight out into the rude wide world. it's quite an experience.

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