Blooming
Some poems write themselves
with the ease of flowers
opening in time-lapse photography.
Others leave me in a litter
of scribbled pages, green petals
ripped from a hard bud.
© 2013 by Violet Nesdoly
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Are you doing a poem-a-day writing challenge during April (in honor of National Poetry Month)? I am, though I don’t have the courage to post my efforts early in the process.
Yesterday the idea I got from one of my prompt sources was irresistible but when I started writing, nothing came together. Hours later I had only a 3 stanza piece typed into my computer ending with a note to myself: “This doesn’t feel finished” along with a stack of scribbled and crossed-out false starts.
Or maybe they aren’t false starts. Maybe, as the ditty above (that came to me this morning with complete ease) would suggest, the poem I was trying to write needs a little time to ripen and those attempts were its way of telling me that.
This poem is submitted to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge.
Violet Nesdoly 
That is lovely, Violet. And you must be brave and post them all, they’ve got to be better than mine. I’d love to read them.
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Violet,
This is beautiful. The truth of it is so vital. And, often the good poems don’t come until we struggle with the ones that never quite seem to come together. Thank you for this beautiful gift today and I’m with Catherine Johnson, post the mistakes too, I want to read what you are throwing away. It is surely better than my little scratchlings.
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Thank you so much, Catherine and Joy – you are too kind!
I love what you say, Joy, about how the good poems don’t come until we struggle with the not-so-good. Don’t you hate it when the ideal is there in your imagination, but somehow you can’t bring it out like you know it should be? Maybe after sleeping on it, etc. things will eventually come together. Again, thanks for your encouragement! 🙂
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Beautiful, Violet, thanks for sharing! And don’t you think your Muse was busy working/enchanting – making those false starts into something – while you slept? :0)
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Actually, Robyn, I went back to that difficult poem this morning and yes, my subconscious has been chewing away on it and I now have some ideas of how to solve problems with it. I must learn to be a patient poet.
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Your postings of the beautiful flower pics must have been infusing your pen, Violet! I like the comparison of different kinds of flowering. And it’s interesting about the mind working, or not, depending on so many things, I guess–rest, nourishment, ease of feelings. Thanks for the chance to reflect on this!
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Linda, I’ve thought a lot about why words flow out sometimes and other times they don’t. You’re right about rest and feeling well physically (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?). I also find that sometimes reading poems by others helps, and reading such ‘right to write’ authors like Julia Cameron and the Writing Down the Bones lady. It’s a delicate balance isn’t it?
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Ain’t that the truth! Love this, Violet. I like the conceit of blooming flowers as a metaphor for writing – it’s quite accurate!
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Yes!
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Thank you so much, Matt & Ruth!
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Just lovely, Violet. And so true.
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Your poem seems to suggest it’s all in the approach. A slowing down, an opening to noticing what may come versus a hasty, more forced method. With all good intentions, I began a poem-a-day, but already see this isn’t going to work for me! I need the time-lapse photography approach, I guess.
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Liked this, Violet! Your word choice is precisely right. Wishing you luck with the rest of Poetry Month!
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