Creative Expression

While my fur baby, Miss Emme, slept amidst the comfort of my bed yesterday I had the opportunity to watch a forum address given by a professor of poetry and literature at Brigham Young University on TV. His remarks piqued my interest and reminded me of some of my own recent thoughts about reading and writing. The dissertation aside, I really haven't done as much reading of good literature or writing of my thoughts and ideas as I would like to do. I was reminded of all the great books I haven't read as I walked through the Barnes and Noble the other day. I have been blogging here, but my personal journal writings have been infrequent. In many respects, knitting has interfered with my need for other creative expression, mostly because you can't read or write and knit at the same time--or at least I can't do those things. Being a visual person, audiobooks are OK, but they just don't cut it for me. I have to *read* it myself.


Last night I resolved to change and do more writing and reading. The professor commented on how spending 15 minutes each day writing had really improved his expression and how jotting down noteworthy thoughts and ideas as you come across them in a day are great fodder for later creative writings. I love reading and writing poetry, but I have written much in the last 4 or 5 years, even though the ideas are always popping into my mind. So I put down my knitting and wrote in my journal before going to sleep last night, and I grabbed a pencil and legal pad and spent a little time this morning waxing poetic. I looked around my room for inspiration and saw all the baskets of yarns and pottery filled with needles and notions. The words came with relative ease after looking at the basket pictured above.

Jaywalking

Strands of palmetto fronds
encircle sweetgrass needles
like stripes on a barber pole;
Round and round
the coils curve upward,
capturing flamingo pink stripes
soft as a newborn lamb;
Sharp steely sticks
lift loops of yarn
along a jagged journey,
jaywalking to
just socks.