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#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Someone hung Colonial style window treatments over my windows while I was sleeping. That’s what I thought as I woke and did as I always do from bed – my eyes open to the sky. Except, this morning, within a few confused seconds, I realized I wasn’t in my bed, but in an Inn in Rockport, MA, and I was so relieved to find the sky blue and cloudless, and these aren’t my windows. My curtainless, blindless windows are just as I left them, at home. I wanted to sleep in, but the sun was bright and my husband woke too and we left the room by 6:15 a.m. - him to a morning meeting nearby in Gloucester, and me to walk in Rockport at Halibut Point State Park. I had no idea how beautiful it would be. I walked in the early morning in the hot sunshine down to the rocks by the sea, and then followed a trail that led me by a quarry! It was a gorgeous quarry, and the path allowed you to walk entirely around it. There were forget-me-nots in bloom at the edge of the rock. After circling the quarry, I went back to the rocks and, careful with my footing over the damp stone, I knelt for awhile and looked into the tidal pools and listened to the slosh of the sea. I have missed the sea. A long day has taken place from this wonderful beginning. I am going to sleep in a different hotel room, and the blinds are completely covering the windows. I am spending a night in Martha’s Vineyard. Tonight I went to a poetry reading by Billy Collins, and tomorrow I’m going to a small workshop with him in Oak Bluffs at Featherstone. His reading was wonderful, full of laughter and originality and a crowd pleasing delivery. I haven’t walked around a quarry since the kids were little and we hiked to the quarry in Fitzwilliam. I wrote a piece of creative nonfiction about those hikes. Haven’t thought about it in years. It was nice to be reminded.

Billy Collins, Oak Bluffs, Featherstone Center for the Arts

Excerpt from “Biography of a Cloud,” Billy Collins https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=39159