Monday, April 17, 2023

Still dreaming of discovery

There is a sandy crescent with happy ocean waves

greenish ever moving seas

grassy dunes

it was there the summers before I grew up

rolled out their promises 


In the spaces between not quite cold beers

between sunburns 

diving into the cresting swells

I might imagine a typewriter in New York City

pages of a novel stacked nearby 

cigarette balanced on a glass ashtray that said Monte Carlo

first rejection letter framed above the dresser 

it would be a studio somewhere 

amongst other writers 

some struggling not yet famous artist’s work upon the wall


How odd that crescent beaches dotted the years to swiftly pass

no Monte Carlo ashtray

New York City turned out to be that place where words stand in line

elevators eat up your imagination 

even the wealthy frown and struggle


Here, in an undefined stretch of time

I thought yesterday of Lillian Hellman who tore leaves of courage from her own pages and handed them to me

today, the goodbyes to a friend whose journey is completing in a moment

love for a friend who survived heart surgery 

had he not, the loss would have been deeper than that ocean 


Rather than a sandy crescent

here is a sinuous meandering sandy riverbank

no curling waves

nor grassy dunes

rather the towering cottonwoods 

wearing their riparian chartreuse spring foliage


No Algonquin round table but something else

torn notebook pages limned with the courage of individual truth

sandy moonlike beaches and turquoise seas 

beneath our fingers

our community of the screen 

longing for the room 

the circle where the alchemy happens


#NaPoWriMo

#chartreusemusings

#bigislandwriters

#southwestwriters

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