Thursday, October 2, 2014

Driving home from band practice can be exciting, and I'm sure that all my Frost Place friends will be thrilled to learn that I finally saw a bear last night. It crossed the road in front of my car and, in the wonky shine of the headlights, bore a striking resemblance to a cartoon gorilla. However, I'd already had an exciting animal sighting just minutes before: a Scotch Highland cow (long horns, thick bangs, physique of a stuffed animal) looming out of a driveway like a hairy mailbox.

I had such a good day yesterday. The Chestnut Ridge ms is finally in groomable order, by which I mean that I've found a thematic structure. However, the ms is far too long and it's boggy and dull in places; so what I need to do now is delete poems, move the rest around, combine sections, break sections--all regular revision stuff, but much easier now that I've got a shape in my head. This work may or may not begin to happen today, but even if it doesn't, the shape exists and will persist, and that is a great happiness.

3 comments:

Ruth said...

Perrhaps the animal sightings are confirmation that Chestnut Ridge is going in the proper direction.

DiTa said...

Ursus americanus

2 black bears walking upright
down route 17,
fall foliage not their concern.
Drove past them before
I realized it were
just 2 Mainers
in black cords & black hoodies,
probably hiking up
to Peaslees Gas-Stop to get
a couple of six packs
of Bud. Funny how
sun and shadow
play tricks like that.

Then there was this one black cow.
Chewing & re-chewing some hay.
Beneath a fiery red maple,
like a flaming cockscomb.
I wondered if all the other cows
were praying for a warm winter.

Also wondering, Dawn, did you choose earth, wind water, fire as your thematic approach?

Dawn Potter said...

Wow! Thanks for that poem, Dita! And re the thematic approach: I did use those categories, arranging them as a sort of scaffold for groups of 3-5 poems.