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​blog: You'll Never Be Quite the Same

Trapped too long alone

4/24/2020

4 Comments

 
Picture

​Another day of staying home,
the sun has arced its course,
traversed the soaring blue-deep dome
with quarantine in force.
 
How was your day? What did you do?
The question seems to scold.
I ate, I walked, I tied my shoe;
the day and I grew old.
 
Without a job or task in line
or friends’ reflected gaze,
I cannot seem to self-define
my self has bled to haze.
 
In isolation’s empty hours
our steam-vents jam and groan.
The inner self erupts and cowers
when trapped too long alone.

 
My 60th year in 60,000 words
Day 243: 108 words, TOTAL = 39,950; 20,050 remaining

4 Comments
Toby Richard
4/24/2020 10:27:15 am

I enjoyed your poem. Stay healthy!

Reply
robin
4/24/2020 05:52:30 pm

thanks, Toby!

Reply
Dan Harrison
4/26/2020 08:03:09 pm

Beautiful and powerful. How long did it take you to write this? And how many drafts? No worries about answers... just appreciating your writing process!

Reply
robin
4/30/2020 04:43:46 pm

Hi Dan - For some reason I never got an alert to this comment. I'll have to check my settings. Here's a bit about my process for this poem, which pretty much fit my standard practice.

I wrote the first draft of this poem the day before I posted it - a bit of a "cheat" according to my self-imposed rules for the one-year blog-a-day challenge. I usually start by writing an opening sentence with a meter that I like, then I go from there, trying to maintain meter and rhyme while still getting the ideas across that I'm going for. The day I posted it I revisited and revised until it felt okay, then posted.

I tend to go with AABB or ABAB, but depending on the complexity of my "heart" sentence, I could set myself a greater challenge for the whole thing.

Sometimes I write myself into a corner - no good rhyme, or the thing I want to say can't fit my meter, and I have to scratch out a whole stanza and start fresh. I often have lists of rhyming words in the margins to see what might give me what I want. Mostly it is just fun for me, like a word puzzle.

probably more than you needed to know - but I don't often get asked that question!
**Robin

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    Author

    Robin Clifford Wood is an award-winning author, poet, and writing teacher.  She lives  in central Maine with her husband, loves to be outdoors, and enjoys ever-expanding horizons through her children, grandchildren, and granddogs.

    To read about the "60th year in 60,000 words" challenge, go to the August 27th blog post. 
    ​
    https://www.robincliffordwood.com/youll-never-be-quite-the-same---blog/tomorrow-is-launch-day
    ​

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