08.17.08
Writer’s rut.
For the past several weeks I haven’t written any original poetry. My only writing has consisted of this blog, the occasional email, and critiques of other writers poems. Even the critiquing has tapered off, as I haven’t offered a single critique during the past four days. This seems to happen to writers and poets from time to time, but it leaves me unsettled. I can’t help but wonder whether the NaPoWriMo thread on the Poets org forum during National Poetry Month this past April significantly tapped my writing well. This may simply be a cop out. Still, I am at a loss for the reason.
Try as I may, I struggle to come up with ideas for poems. Those that have come to me are not my typical fair, or they fizzle out within the writing of the first few lines. My poetry forum has been keeping me quite busy, as has life in general, so these may be contributing factors. There are so many stimuli available from nature, but it seems I’ve written about them all before. I may have to seek inspiration from other sources.
I finished cleaning up the limbs from the tree pruning yesterday. In 24 hours, the leaves on the styrax Japonica limbs had dried to the point of brittle, and seed pots were opening. This morning I hauled away the limbs that were left beside the driveway yesterday. When I drove up the driveway to go to the market this afternoon, I could hear the seeds crunching beneath the tries. This evening after I made dinner, I cleared away the limbs around the pond before I ate. I knew that once I sat down to dinner, I wouldn’t get back up to do any type of manual labor.
I’m pleased with what Daniel and I accomplished this weekend, but the trimming and pruning has certainly changed the landscape of the front yard. We’ve lost a good deal of our privacy screen, something that bothered Daniel yesterday. I did not realize just how much vegetation I was cutting away while I was “in the heat of the moment”, and when I finished it was quite obvious just how much I had removed. I’m still taking several doses of aspirin and acetaminophen a day to try to keep the aches and pains at bay.
O.P.W.