I thought I was exhausted from Writober, but it turned out I just needed the election to be over, or perhaps both. I unplugged yesterday, and didn’t peek at the results until kitty was curled up next to me, I had delicious baked plums to fill my empty belly, and cocoa-coffee to wash it down. Maybe it’s just that the sun came out, and even though the construction started at 6:50 am, I was already awake and the world was just too beautiful with my headphones on.
My response to the headlines surprised me, I started scrubbing my kitchen, then cleaned some windows, then did the mending on my sewing table. I cleaned up my sewing crafts area and planned two new sewing projects. Then I suddenly found the contradictory abstract nouns for November (when I just couldn’t the other day). And I reset the calendar quilt for November.
I have some catching up to do, but it feels like my November started today. That’s why I put the inspiration for my contradictory abstract noun study “Find the Hope in despair and the despair in hope” as today’s inspiration.
ModPo 2024
This is the tenth and final week of ModPo, and Rae Armantrout was at this morning’s ModPo live. Knowing she was going to be there, I spent the hour before reading her poems in ModPo Plus, and watching the video about her poem “Care” that was recorded in Seattle in January of 2020. I really enjoyed it. At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch and listen to ModPo Live, because I knew the poets would be upset. But I’m glad I showed up. Hearing the other poets express their grief, disbelief, and anger is what inspired me to get to my abstract nouns calendar, and not give up until I had it finished.
New Poem
Yesterday’s Poetics prompt fits so perfectly with getting my contradictory abstract noun calendar done. Merril’s prompt post was “Choose Joy” and asked us to write about something that brings us joy. Though I have Grief / Joy for next Wednesday. “Find the hope in despair and the despair in hope” brings me joy. Exploring contradictory abstract nouns brings me joy. So writing a poem inspired by any abstract noun brings me joy.
The dangers of joy
The mountain in all its volcanic calm—
hovering on the horizon, dressing
itself with colors of cloud formations
reflecting in the calm autumn lake
accompanied by the red, yellow,
and orange leaves, or the choppy
wind-swept lake those same leaves
floating, melt-dancing through
the blues of rock and whites of glacier
—always brings me joy
I stare in awe whenever it appears
on a sunny day, shedding its cloud
coat, baring itself to the golden rays
Like a hovering parent, or a self-
obsessed sharer, I can take a picture
every day, and its contours are always
new. And there are other good views.
Dangerous to drivers, the mountain
will suddenly fill the sky on the way
up a hill, or around a corner
On the way to work, or on the
way out of town, it fills the sky
and my heart, and I’m stunned
The world stops turning
and if I’m not careful
so do I.
Recently, the mountain
has been showing signs
of waking from slumber
tossing and turning a bit
Maybe having the same
bad dream I keep leaving
the computer playing
uninteresting re-runs to avoid
but I hope not. If the mountain
wakes up on the wrong side
like I did the other day
it’ll take more than a twister-disc
and some roasted plums
to temper that volcano.
Having your hopes snatched away is definitely fuel for despair. But instead, I feel like today is my ticking clock. I need to use the time I have as fully as I possibly can before the volcano erupts figuratively, or literally.
Experience Writing 
I love the poem. Everything has been hectic this November. It’s like one thing after the next O.o
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I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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I’ve actually been doing the Writober stuff, although I’m writing in a journal to be published on my 60th birthday and composing poems and stories to be submitted to anthologies, so not much of it is online. I’d be happy to share some of it with you, but WordPress doesn’t like to let me leave links, i.e. to a URL or an email.
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If you’d like to share something inspired by the Writober prompts with me, you can email it to mariaberg@experiencewriting.com. Or if you want to, you can paste the work directly into the chat of the prompt post. So glad you found Writober inspiring.
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Finding time for joy is really needed among sorrow, anger and despair..
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A good way to look at things–to use time before ticking clocks sound the alarms, volcanos erupt, or fascist regimes go into effect. This has been some day for sure. Thank you for writing to the prompt!
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Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
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