WriteOut WhyIWrite The Woods

WALKING THE DOG

One of our favorite places to walk the dog is Jones Bay Campground on Banks Lake near and managed by Steamboat Rock State Park. We only walk the dog there when the park is closed after the summer season. Today was just such a day, and it was Guthrie’s first time there. He’s only two years old and we rescued him last November.

MAGICAL MEMORY

We loved seeing how the grove of coyote willow has grown, longer and thicker than our favorite moment here. We’d brought grandkids Marisa and Jorden here for a walk with our previous dog, Pooka. The young kids, about 8 and 10 years old, walked right up to the grove, pausing at a break in the trees, and then slowly entering. You can see in he photos above how the grove parts in places and when close, you can see into its secrets as it entices you to enter. I had filmed the grandkids walking up to the grove, pausing, and then entering it, and they slowly disappeared. It was so eerie. I spent an hour trying to find a hard drive with that video, taken so many computers ago! Sadly, I could not find it! But every time we pass this grove, we stop to remember and laugh at the fairy tale moment.

NATIONAL DAY ON WRITING

Today is National Day on Writing, an encourage meant to share with the hashtag #whyiwrite why you write. I write to share the small moments of my life for a time when I’m no longer here, and family might ask, “What about?” to which my writings may help answer. I decided to share a haiku of my “why,” connecting it to today’s #writeout poetry, about the magic of that coyote willow.

Why I Write

I write now’s moments
to time when I’m gone, witness
to truths of wonder.Sheri Edwards
Photography/Poetry/Haiku
#whyiwrite #writeout
10.20.24

THE POETRY

For #writeout, I read a blog post on Teach Write Now, the National Writing Project’s resource hub. I read the post about writing small poems: Teeny Tiny Poetry for Writing Outside. My friend Kevin Hodgson share his ways and forms of writing small poems, including sharing a slide show of small poems from #writeout 2022 and several resources. I read about free verse.

In my poem I tried to keep a cadence and flow with alliteration [repeated first consonant sounds], consonance [repeated consonant sounds], and assonance [repeated vowel sounds]. Considering form, I create a structure that the language itself formed– the phrases of imagery and the words depicting action creating the line breaks. I wrote in prose at first, writing description and images that added to the structure. I tried concise imagery and metaphor — “dropping lower leaves in openings of darkness, doors of curiosity.” And I ended with concrete verb: disappear. In my picture below, you can see that I also lowered the opacity of the end of the word disappear– the placement and opacity shows my experiment with space, another aspect of free verse.

What do you see in my poem?

COYOTE WILLOW: THE WOODS

The Woods

Beckoning fairy woods
where fireside stories live
not towering cottonwoods
No- just a soft, mounded grove
Slim-trunked, slim-leaved
coyote willow;
Yellowing now in autumn
Dropping lower leaves
in openings of darkness,
doors of curiosity
enticing wanderers
to enter
to step into
the
magic

and disappearwriteout
Sheri Edwards
Photography/Poetry
10.20.24

JOIN IN!

This post is part of the October WRITEOUT adventure, October 13 through the 27th, partnership of the National Writing Project and the National Park Service — a chance to enjoy the outdoors with poetry, prose, and parks for Write Out 2024. Organized as a public invitation to get out and create, supported by a series of free online activities, Write Out invites educators, students, and families to explore national parks and other public spaces. The goal is to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing. Check out this infographic for the flow of the this week and the Choice Board to get you started for WriteOut’s Poetry for the Planet.

Learn more and sign up: https://writeout.nwp.org

This is my seventh year with WriteOut with all my WriteOut posts here.

cross post at What Else: WriteOut WhyIWrite The Woods