What's In My Journal

What's In My Journal
    after William Stafford
    for Niki Robinson

Bits of bone. Smeared snot
and belly-button lint. A few
bells and wind-chimes. Cat
cries; dog dreams. Scraps
of night: train whistle, stars,
early and late snow. 

Snippets of the seasons: wild
tulips, roses, chrysanthemums.
Sea salt. The taste of pineapple.
Supple limbs, and stiff joints.
Crows, crows' nests, crows feet.
Crystal candle holders.

Candles burnt down to wax puddles.
Oil lamps. Flashlights. Heather.
Goldfish slipping through water
of all colors. A color that has no
name. Spider webs. Spirals. Maps
and charts of faraway

underneath caverns and caves.
Feathers. Beads. Pebbles and stones
from rivers and seas. Fingernail
clippings. Sharp-toothed beasts.
Tribbles. Bonds, thick and broken.
Shells. More spirals.

The first handout for the Life Writing: Journal & Memoir class that I'll be taking (starting Thursday!) is this poem. William Stafford was one of the first 'professional' poets to look at my work. He liked it. He told me to send it out, and I did. It was accepted, and published, and I felt -- exposed.

I haven't seen other poets write about this; most write about the effort to get published. But surely my reaction can't be unique?

Of course, this was many years ago, and now I put my poems out there every day. And I think of Stafford often, with gratitude for his kindness and encouragement. He advocated writing a poem every day, even in months that are not April.

RELATED POSTS @ Watermark:

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Poets' Notebooks

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THE WRITER EXPOSED at prairiemary

Comments

[niki]

My journal has ALL that in it and more! Fun poem and I am honored by the "for" Niki. Noted the color of water!

[Germma]

Love your sharp, dramatic bursts of "raw and naked" images.

Very graphic!

Gemma

[Linda Jacobs]

Even though I don't write them very often, I love, love, love list poems! This one is jampacked full of wonderful images!

[paisley]

this was sooo good.. i truly wish i was feeling better so i could really enjoy its every nuance.. i will be back to do so.. as i have also bookmarked your prompts... so don't be surprised if you get a link or two from me......

[...deb]

Wonderful response to Stafford's poem. I'm pleased for you to have been a student of his.

I like his, and yours, so much I might just have to try it myself.

And thanks for the link to your NaPoWriMo post! I'll reference it next Tuesday in another "support post" we're doing.

(Joyce - Pepek - mentioned Stafford's poem about Aunt Mabel, too. I love how poets seem to echo!)

[Tumblewords]

Absolutely wonderful - the style is perfect and the list is incredibly dense with images.

[APu]

I love how the paragraphs are constructed. It allows such freedom.

[Leonard Blumfeld]

I'm not surprised W. Stafford liked this one. Looking forward to read more of your work.

[SB]

Oh, some new readers!

This poem was so fun to write -- I'm especially pleased so many of you like it.

Leonard, Stafford never saw this poem -- it's a new poem. He saw my very early work. I think he would have liked this one, though.

[UL]

i loved how you combined the two prompts in such a unique manner...beautiful.