This is low tide
A Dry Age
Rivulets in hard sands
Brackish backwater pooled
in low land
Rattling reeds lean
toward the sea
Skeleton leaves adorn
The abandoned spider’s web
Heartbeats with no blood
A sea turtle’s eggs
await the flood
—- —- —-
Good morning little one,
Sunrise is soon
The Sea also rises
Under the sway
Of another new moon
—- —- —-
Musie-
How do you edit in a mood? How do you sustain or suspend an altered mood that you may or may not be in? Between you and me, I’m trying to edit some delightfully dismal poetry but I’m not in a gloomy mood. It’s autumn and it’s been gorgeous out here all week. I’m feeling quite hopeful. And so are you, I think. I saw your paintings. So how do you do your proper work of finishing off a gloomy or dreadful feeling with word or song or paint when you’re feeling so cheery and well-caffeinated? Should we let it sit with the Rain People for now until we can walk along? I just added a happy ending to a Halloween story and thought I may have ruined it. But I didn’t—that was only the ghosts heckling back there— because it could instead be a summer beach-blanket read or a hopeful children’s story. (Okay, maybe not a children’s story. They are the scariest!) I think the Rain People need some autumn sunshine. Are you up for some editing this season? I mean, soon & moon, c’mon, I could use some of your red ink and direction and ghost-slaying abilities and moral support. Especially when I forget or lose focus. I don’t like it but I’ll leave it here for now. The right words didn’t fall on it, yet there may or may not be something there for later, if only one gloomy line. The point is that I’ve not felt that dismal in a very long time as I did at this season’s low tide and yet I was still able to scrawl it out in the sand and hopefully help the sea turtle with an arrow. That’s all. We survived the low tide. Maybe I just had a bad dream about eggs.
Have you been out for a walk today? Be careful! There are acorns everywhere! Crunch crunch. I’m headed out. I’ll try not to come back with a bunch of corny lines about seeds, though I can’t promise anything. Not even rain.
Hey, Lilly wants to go rollerskating this winter. What do you say? Maybe when and if Amani’ & Trisk’l return from Europe we can all go to the rink. I’d love to see the coven shufflin’.
Counterclockwise,
PSL