#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

“Rubber duckie I’m so in love with you”

“. . . Rubber Ducky, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you. . .”

~ Sesame Street Lyrics

Fish in Grass

A lazy sunrise: I see the lilac striped clouds over the river from bed. It’s pleasant outdoors. The river’s edges have thin, lacy ice. It’s just me and Charlie. There is still snow, messy, half-melted snow. I find a lovely ice fish swimming in the puddled grass in the wetlands; she reminds me of summer in her blues and greens, my favorite summer colors, and this is cheerful and refreshing. But, even more so, hilariously, I find, on the edge of the Charles in the brush, a washed up frozen rubber duckie, just the one you would take to your bath to bob on the surface and keep you company.

Poor duck, he’s lost his life in the Charles River. While I am walking and thinking about my new poem that I sent for this morning’s workshop, I get a new line that seems to be a strong line towards the meaning of the poem, but it’s too late to add it. Pretty soon, I go in and it’s time for my poetry workshop and the poems by my mates are very fine. My poem, this first draft, holds up well enough that I get some very helpful comments that I agree with. In the afternoon, I make soup, my minestrone, and let it simmer. Then I work on the Chilmark poem to make some revisions from last week that I don’t want to forget; and it feels done. Tonight, after making popovers to go with the soup, I attend a Zoom event hosted by Featherstone at Martha’s Vineyard to listen to a conversation between Jorie Graham and Bret Johnson. (And how wonderful, to find among the other listeners Naomi Shihab Nye!) (I can’t agree with anyone who says they don’t like Zoom; these opportunities are amazing.) And Jorie Graham says, among many other interesting things: “We go to the blank page to be transformed.” Well, of course I know that. But I appreciate listening to a conversation where she is saying it to me.