grace at work

This week I’m thinking about process again. Or rather, process hit me over the head. I wrote a poem after three signs I saw rubbed against each other in my subconscious for a few weeks.

Grace Street – One Way reads a sign in Rockland, Maine. Beautiful! Had to take a photo. The Self Storage sign in Oakland has Taxidermy lettered on top. That day I thought storing my Self was a pretty good idea, especially if I could get it stuffed and permanently out of the way. And right up the hill is the Redemption Center for those Maine bottles we have to deposit money for. I though redeeming myself was a good idea, too.

A few days ago I read a reflective piece on the Bible story of the woman at the well – a redemption story for sure. And the next thing I knew, my brain put it all together and a pantoum was born! Grace at work!

hanging with Hildegard

It's been too hot to work for a week. At ninety degrees all I can do is breathe! I guess summer remembered Maine, after all. Or did Maine suddenly recall how to serve up summer? I definitely couldn't be a southern girl! How did Eudora Welty manage to write down in Jackson, Mississippi!

Today the heat wave has broken and clouds have rolled in. I tackled my Hildegard manuscript again, filling in details about herbs that would have been in her infirmary garden. I stumbled onto websites where current posts responded to the "news" that Hildegard was a herbal healer. All this interest in my subject is good!

I verified that Agnes was indeed a woman's name in 12th-century Germany and straightened myself out on the difference between a Psalter and a Breviary. I sleuthed around until I found that Lady's Mantle and Shepherd's purse grow in the Rhine Valley. The Internet makes these searches so easy.

I also have to get going and revise some poems. I'm one of the readers at Art in The Woods in Marlow, NH in September and need some fresh material! Cooler weather will help tremendously!

finger knitting and writing

This week I learned to finger knit, thanks to a beautiful 6th grader. Alex deftly looped yarn named Fiesta around four fingers, growing her yarn tube into a bookmark, a bracelet or choker. She coached me, guiding the yarn between my fingers, which I tended to spread awkwardly. My first tube was loopy and stretchy. I commented that it didn’t look like her even finger stitches. She said, “Well, you’ve only been doing this for five minutes. I’ve done it for three years.”

And isn’t that just like writing a first draft? Or in my case, adding chapters to an existing manuscript or expanding existing chapters. What I had seemed even and polished. After all, I have been working at it for eight years now! But an agent has suggested that I ditch the certain parts and build others up. Essentially, I’m trying to incorporate more historical fact into a fiction manuscript. And the more historical fact is the loopy part right now.

So I will continue growing my manuscript until my words are even once again. I try not to think about the finger knitting option of ripping out what I’ve done and starting over!

basho's pond

It's hot, muggy and threatening to storm, but it's a glorious Wednesday! This morning I received word that hubby and I have been accepted as volunteers at the Asian Rural Institute in Japan next spring! We are ecstatic.

All of a sudden the air of my morning walk felt like Japan! It was humid with a slight breeze ruffling the leaves. I passed the flood control area. It looked like green dotted swiss with white water lilies dotting the lily pads. All along the bank frogs plopped as my feet vibrated the earth. Basho's Pond!

I've just discovered writer John O'Donohue and placed his book Benedictus on my wish list. This last verse from his poem For a New Beginning holds much meaning for me today.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.