Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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A Day in the Writing Life

17 Comments

This post originally ran at the Elevensies site in September 2010


Some days
I spend in a one-room sod house,
watching a girl
survive a blizzard
alone.

Other times
I conjure up an alligator
slipping through duckweed,
an egret 
lifting a graceful foot
as he creeps through marsh grass.

I revisit characters
that look nothing like
the flimsy selves they once were
or 
research different lives,
unsure of what story will surface 
but trusting 
one will come.

In special moments
I enter a place
where the outside world
of coffee shop clatter,
conversations,
and familiar music
fades 
to
nothing.

Only my words exist.

Most often
I spend days
barely moving forward,
but working
still.
Thinking through images,
knocking out rhythms, 
climbing inside my character’s skin.

I poke at ideas,
unsure
how to start
but
beginning,
and beginning,
then beginning again.

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Filed Under: poetry, the writing life

Comments

  1. Anne Gallagher says

    February 21, 2011 at 11:17 am

    Yes Yes and Yes!!! I love reading as much as I love writing. It’s like Calgon (for those of us old enough to remember what that is)–
    it takes me away.

    Reply
  2. Katie Ganshert says

    February 21, 2011 at 11:27 am

    Yep! That last stanza pretty much sums it up! Great poem. 🙂

    Reply
  3. sally apokedak says

    February 21, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    What a lovely poem.

    Reply
  4. gae polisner says

    February 21, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    love this. and you. <3

    Reply
  5. isezrawr says

    February 21, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    I really love this poem <3 and I can totally relate 😀

    Reply
  6. Caroline Starr Rose says

    February 21, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    Gae, right back at you. Thank you, all!

    Reply
  7. Solvang Sherrie says

    February 21, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    Beautiful! I love this!

    Reply
  8. Jade says

    February 21, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    That is so beautiful!

    Reply
  9. Joanne Fritz says

    February 21, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    Wow, Caroline! This is the perfect poem for writers. You describe so well the whole creative process! I especially love the part about the outside world fading to nothing. Although of course the “barely moving forward” part and the “beginning and beginning” part also eloquently describe a writer’s life.

    Breathtaking.

    Reply
  10. Carrie says

    February 21, 2011 at 10:14 pm

    This is a beautiful poem. Thanks for posting it.

    Reply
  11. Caroline Starr Rose says

    February 21, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    Thanks, everyone, for your kind words. And Sherry, I ate a Sadie’s sopapilla in your honor yesterday!

    Reply
  12. Catherine Lavoie says

    February 22, 2011 at 3:08 am

    Beautiful poem! I especially love the last two stanzas! 🙂

    Reply
  13. Catherine Denton says

    February 22, 2011 at 3:43 am

    LOVE this!!

    Reply
  14. Amy says

    February 22, 2011 at 5:19 pm

    I’m grinning after reading your poem–my heart resounds with a Yes! She got it!–thanks much. Brava!

    Reply
  15. Ghenet says

    February 22, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    This is wonderful! Thanks for sharing it. 🙂

    Reply
  16. Kimberley Griffiths Little says

    February 24, 2011 at 4:40 am

    Gorgeous, Caroline!!! I love it.

    Reply
  17. Rachael Levy says

    March 3, 2011 at 5:24 am

    Sometimes I get impatient with the hibernating, the time waiting for the words to glom into worlds and become populated. Your poem reminded me to stop worrying, stop fretting, stop pushing because the story will come. Eventually.

    Reply

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