Friday, January 21, 2022

Season Premiere

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All of summer at my back
I pedaled into chance of rain
the sky clear blue with fringe of clouds
beyond the canopy, still green.

Crackling trees alerted me
when fall rolled in, a granite gray,
crushed the warmth and snapped thick branches
dropping fractured in my way.

I pushed on toward an overpass
repelled by wind as leaves in swarms
like agitated bats attacked,
and cold drops stung my arms.

"Really, guys," I laughed, "for me?
This cinematic violence?"
I reached the shelter, shivering,
an awed, delighted, audience.

Image by Susan Rouse.

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My weakness for clever rhymes sometimes seduces me into writing nonsense. So I drafted this poem without rhyme. Then, the morning I was going to post it, I read a poem by Richard Wilbur in which he rhymed just the last word, doubling the impact and making me smile -- what a pleasure! I then tinkered with my draft and found some rhymes already there; some rhymes came to mind that sharpened the lines I'd written.

So I've changed my mind. Rhyme drew me to poetry before I could read. I won't deny myself the pleasure of discovering rhyming relationships. I'm writing for pleasure, after all. - WSS

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