I sat down today to do my poem and realized I had forgotten to put on my wedding band. I always put it on first thing in the morning and somehow it slipped by me today. There is a profound sense of wrongness that always accompanies the absence of my wedding band from my finger. Not seeing it, not feeling it where it was supposed to be immediately drove me to correct that. That feeling and the thoughts it aroused in me are what served as today’s inspiration.
Once again inspiration struck when I didn’t have my notebook on me and I had to resort to writing yesterday’s poem on scrap paper. I transcribed it into my poetry notebook this morning before writing today’s poem.
Yesterday I left my bride and my dog in Houston. Nobody’s especially thrilled about it, least of all my puppy. He’s a rescue and has severe anxiety attacks every time he sees a suitcase being packed. He knows it means a trip and that it’s not going to be a quick ride in the car. He gets both desperate and excited and it’s him that inspired yesterday’s poem. Kind of hurt to write it out. I’m missing him and my bride today.
This morning’s poem comes from my ever frenetic attempts at organization and prioritizing. There’s always more to do. And now after that. Beauty of life. When it runs out, there’s no life left. Even so, I feel like I’m sending my brain spiraling around inside my own skull sometimes.
Wow, day 175. We’re almost halfway through the year.
Definitely purging a little bit today, perhaps using my poetry to process my own life’s journey. This theme may be a tad redundant but writing this poem definitely helped me with my mindset and perspective going forward today. Here’s hoping someone else will get something similar out of it.
Spending some time near the beach today with my bride talking about storytelling. I found myself admiring the never ending series of waves that surge up to glide into the shore and it inspired today’s work.
My bride’s been working in Houston all week and thanks to my own work schedule I didn’t get to see her until late last night. Neither of us sleep especially well when apart. Coming home for a productive day to spend some quality time with her before bed was wonderful.
I love my dog. Poor puppy was feeling extraordinarily needy today. I couldn’t turn around without tripping over him. I think most dog owners can relate to this experience.
Life is a series of struggles and upsets. That’s what makes it living. We are characters in a story and stories where the characters never struggle are nothing more than daydreams of wish fulfillment and quite frankly, boring. It’s easy to forget to take our problems in stride, to let them overwhelm us. Every now and then though, something reminds us that life is good, problems and all.
Work is keeping my bride and I apart again. It’s a wonderful problem to have. It means though that we don’t get to see each other enough and even when we do that amount isn’t enough because we know it’s only temporary and we are each left craving more.
We have an osprey who’s territory overlaps the land next to our home. Every now and then we spot him hunting or surveying his domain from a branch or light pole. Gorgeous raptors. They have a crest of feathers on their head and dark markings around their eyes, which got me thinking about crowns and masks and identity. I doubt the osprey much cares what we think about who he is, but what paradoxes do we carry in our own identities and why?
Twice I have been given assigned the exercise of personifying my muse. The purpose of this is not to create another identity within yourself–that’s simply unhealthy–but to give oneself the vision of something that can be trained or overcome. We are creatures of story and when you give a story to your creation process it becomes something more manageable. By training your muse, by overcoming it, you are in effect overcoming your own internal obstacles. It should come as no surprise to any that know me that I envision my own muse as a dragon.
The Everyday Poet 