#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Last night in the hotel

. . . Umber, curl, release
into stillness, though nothing is still.
Things fly away, fall away,
fallow and stall

into stillness, though nothing is still
and there is nothing to hold here,
lines fallowed and stalling. . .

~ Excerpt from “Pantoum for Fall,” by Autumn Konopka

This evening, picture through hotel room window: last night of this view. Phew. Tomorrow we return home. Even though I was outside a large portion of the day, I was not able to reach a state of grace for an image. I walked Charlie, pushing the stroller; a fussy adventure. Later, in the playground, supervising. In the afternoon, a break to write. I went to Tatte in Wellesley, got my black iced tea, tuned out the chatter of the holiday crowd, and sunk into writing a pantoum. A form I’ve never written before, I signed up for 4-week poetry revision workshop and our task this week was to write a pantoum.

The pantoum is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.

Ugh. It wasn’t easy at all for me. But I was glad I pushed through my resistance and eeked out an acceptable first draft. So even though this weekend will be busy with moving back in, I have my poem ready.