breaks and ....pauses

Trinity Writers' Workshop held a poetry seminar for members on Saturday, Feb. 28th. The guest speaker, David Evans, is the Poet Laureate of South Dakota. A charming and thoughtful man, he eased us into the world of poetry. Discussing structure, beat, and word choice, he emphasized that poetry should be accessible. We looked at proverbs, rhymes, one liners, and prose poems. He engaged us in writing exercises and encouraged us all. One form I hadn't given much thought is Haiku - three lines. Syllable count is five, seven, five. Brevity and thoughts on the physical world are key. I'll give it a try based on the ROCK in the Outback of Australia. See pictures above. First the night

Reds to purples fade

light switch of sun flickers once

slate blue gray nightfall

And day:

Raw red rock rises

majestic sparse glare and heat

aboriginal

It's fun to distill a picture into a few words, hopefully an accessible image.

Joanne

Sooner - word choice, not a person from Oklahoma

As I edit and re-edit my NaNo novel, I contemplate word choices. In the rush to crank out 50K words back in the month of November, style and content flew out the window. Now I ponder each page. Pithy bon mots should flow from the mouths of my characters. Settings should not involve mere blue or tan couches or a boringly beautiful day. I need to draw a picture that pulls my reader into a sense of place.

Time designations should not be vague. Hence, this discussion of "soon". My black Pontiac GT zoom-mobile appears to have a persnickety catalytic converter. The whole fuel system dumped a year ago and I poured money into my baby. Six months ago a light beamed from the dashboard and I panicked. The converter was replaced for free and the angels sang. Then, the LIGHT - the dreaded "Service Engine Soon" light re-appeared. Huh? After tests and consultations, nothing is wrong with the converter. It happens to not agree with the car computer and thus chooses to signal its discontent intermittently. This morning it said "soon". This afternoon, it turned off.

I need a better description from my dashboard. The light should say "three minutes" or "ten days" or "six months". SOON enables procrastination. SOON is much too vague. Think about word choice. I will, sooner or later, when I'm stranded in my car on the side of the road in Oklahoma and a kindly Sooner stops to help me.

Joanne