First, today has been a total 10 on a 1 – 10 scale of perfection. The sun is clear, hot and sparkling on the water of the bay, the air is cool with a light breeze, and I’m in a waterfront house with only a tiny bit of work to do. And there was an earthquake today! Sitting on the deck eating lunch, I felt everything start to move back and forth. For a minute, I thought there was something wrong with me, some inner balance suddenly gone so that the world was now a shifting quiver. I looked up at David in the kitchen and said, “Is there an earthquake going on?” “I think so,” he answered, and then the quaking stopped. Thankfully, it appears to have done little damage, even near the epicenter.
So, here is the poem David wrote almost two weeks ago, during our morning of poetry play. The word prompts were the same that gave me the poem I posted two days ago: ruffle, marshy, sun visor, visible, tenuous, waiting, cobble, gibbous, orb, oblong. Tomorrow will be another poem from David, using words we had our family generate following day. Lots of poetry in my life right now, which is a very good thing.
Sargent and the Four Daughters
There must have been a gibbous moon unmasked
the feathering of the Earth
softening the chill edge into that curtain
drawn deep across the shadows of the painting.
One is barely visible in the darker folds,
her sister more forward in the brushed light
before the bright one in ruffles
who draws the eye naturally.
I cannot see the fourth I know is there
somewhere else
searching for words in the road.
Grace Mattern 