"Two wrongs may not make a right but a thousand wrongs make a writer.”

Monday, September 24, 2012

The Snakeskin Road

Every writer has a muse
to probe the right side of the brain,
the forgotten truth
like the secret stash in a gourd,
an elusive wisp of memory
that has no name.  

I think for me it's thunder and conflict—
the fuchsia sunrise out one window
and a drowning sky the other,
conflicting scenes a writer commits to memory
      (if he is wise)
to set a stage.
But don't open with the weather,
the naysayers say. 

The gravel road shimmers like snakeskin in the rain.
It glances off the windows
like paint from the brush of a master.
Could we open with that?
It fills the nesting leaves of the cabbage
and the newly planted lettuce, thankful.
Would one care about that?
 
Clouds collide like passing freight trains
as summer gives way to autumn,
one pushing aside the other, like leaves
swept from the sidewalk
and spiders from corners.

We write in small spaces
and in the rain and in the dark
and in the morn before the house awakes.
When writing, we don't hear the rain
or see the spiders and the snakeskin road,
or care that the sky has turned from  fuchia to gray.

10 comments:

Lydia Kang said...

Lovely. I truly enjoyed reading this!

Anne Gallagher said...

This is just beautiful. I love all your pieces. They're so... colorful.

Liza said...

Oh my. How well you've written it and how well you've said it. The snakeskin road stopped me cold. Breathless!

Jemi Fraser said...

Beautiful! We really can tune out the world when we write - even a world as beautiful as this.

Yvonne Osborne said...

Lydia,
Thank you so much!

Anne,
Thanks! So glad you like it.

Liza,
Thank you. I was trying to think of the perfect description, and it just came out.

Jemi,
Thank you so much. I think it's truly a gift, to be able to do that.

Golden Eagle said...

Wonderful poem! I love your descriptions.

Yvonne Osborne said...

G.Eagle,
Thank you!! You just made my lonely afternoon better!

J.B. Chicoine said...

"Clouds collide like passing freight trains
as summer gives way to autumn,
one pushing aside the other, like leaves
swept from the sidewalk
and spiders from corners."

I just love that. The change of seasons does feel just like that. Makes me want to go for a walk, right now...

Al said...

A lovely piece.
Thank you

Yvonne Osborne said...

JB,
Thank you so much! Did you get in your walk?

Al,
Thnk you!