This week I’m having an uncommonly productive period of writing, and the process is always gratifying even if there is no “goal.” I’m not sure I have goals, except to let story unfold as it will.
My character holds two books. These are the lines that resonate with her.
From Emily Dickinson:
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant–
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind–
******
From Edna St. Vincent Millay:
Who, now, when evening darkens the water and the stream is dull,
Slowly, in a delicate frock, with her leghorn hat in her hand,
At your side from under the golden osiers moves,
Faintly smiling, shattered by the charm of your voice?
There, today, as in days when I knew you well,
The willow sheds upon the stream its narrow leaves,
And the quiet flowing of the water and its faint smell
Are balm to the heart that grieves.
Together with the sharp discomfort of loving you,
Ineffable you, so lovely and so aloof,
There is laid upon the spirit the calmness of the river view:
Together they fall, the pain and its reproof.
Who, now, under the yellow willows at the water’s edge
Closes defeated lips upon the trivial word unspoken,
And lifts her soft eyes frightened with a heavy pledge
To your eyes empty of pledges, even of pledges broken?
Lovely. I am going to read more poetry.
Though I haven’t been inclined to read during the pandemic, I can ALWAYS read poetry. It inspires, uplifts, informs, reflects, explores, provokes… Poets are the magicians of language.
her leghorn hat in her hand… Maggie wears/carries chicken feathered hats????
Whoever that is, her hat likely looks like this leghorn hat.
I’ve heard she can break a man with just a hat.