#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Wild apple blossoms in the swamp
Moss thickened every bough and the wood of the limbs looked rotten but the trees were wild with blossom and a green fire of small new leaves flickered even on the deadest branches.
~ Excerpt from “The Apple Trees at Olema,” by Robert Hass
A dreamy spring day in the woods, thick with blossoms, the violets, purple and white, the anemones, the bouquets of maple wings. I am not sure how far I’ll go, but I keep going to the swamp, after almost turning back, and there, overhanging the trail by the side of the clouded swamp, is the blooming crabapple, arresting me. It’s such a pink atmosphere in the woods today. What is more cheerful and splendid than a spontaneous and old crab apple, rooted here in the swamp? I have some anxieties today, floating ones, I know why they are here. Breathing is always a good idea, deeply. All will be well. I go to my Thursday morning poetry workshop where the poems shared by others are beautifully crafted. I get very helpful feedback and encouragement for my poem. All that work on it yesterday, and yet, so much more to do, but this poem is worth working on, and I will stay with it and trust the process. It began to rain. I prepared a prompt for my Aim for Astonishing workshop tonight. I felt it was a good prompt. One hopes, one never knows for sure. I went to a tech rehearsal online with Mass. Poetry because I’m presenting next week some workshops for Student Day of Poetry––virtual ones, for high schoolers. I have done this, in person, many times previously. I will present photo inspired writing. Well, I had just commented on a Facebook post a writer friend had shared, Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, “Kindness,” and I said in my comment how much I admire Naomi and this poem. Well, I sign into the tech rehearsal, and whose kind and gorgeous face is shining in the Zoom gallery? Naomi’s! What. delight to say hello to her. She is doing a reading for SDOP so she was there. Tonight the prompt I shared in my webinar worked wonderfully. A super satisfying webinar. A wild apple blossom feeling all this day.
