Well here is the new year again. It feels different but maybe it always feels like this. I do know that of all the things I said I was gonna do, this, writing, has been harder. It’s the only one that I’ve had to really cram myself into. But now Lucas is here and all set up with pretzels, so, can’t really get out of it. I can’t take care of tasky tasks at write night, it’s not the kind of wrong I am.
I was listening to a radio interview with a poet who was saying that when she teaches poetry, the students have to spend two weeks writing ten things that they observe every day, without using metaphors.
When you hear an assignment like that it is hard not to follow it. And describing ten things you see in a day is not as easy as you think it's going to be, which annoys my brain pretty much the same way that writing does. Maybe my write brain is just lazy.
One
The recycle bucket filled up with water, which hardened into a solid block of ice and couldn’t be thrown into the gutter. If I wanted to take the ice out, I could use heavy cutters and cut the recycle bucket off, and I would have the recycle-bin shaped solid block of ice. It would hardly be damaged by the clippers. If I wanted to take the water out when it wasn’t frozen, I couldn’t do that. There’d be no way to get the water out without pouring it into another container.
The recycle bucket filled up with water, which hardened into a solid block of ice and couldn’t be thrown into the gutter. If I wanted to take the ice out, I could use heavy cutters and cut the recycle bucket off, and I would have the recycle-bin shaped solid block of ice. It would hardly be damaged by the clippers. If I wanted to take the water out when it wasn’t frozen, I couldn’t do that. There’d be no way to get the water out without pouring it into another container.
Two
There are a lot of fat wooden poles on my street that hold up electrical wires, which you don’t notice unless you are looking for and at them. They have really thick black cables running along them, looping in big coils and swinging from post to post. They’re unsightly, but if you asked me what’s in my neighborhood, I would not think of them.
There are a lot of fat wooden poles on my street that hold up electrical wires, which you don’t notice unless you are looking for and at them. They have really thick black cables running along them, looping in big coils and swinging from post to post. They’re unsightly, but if you asked me what’s in my neighborhood, I would not think of them.
Three
A hedge that’s like a Chinese dragon. Actually, it’s not like a Chinese dragon at all. I call it “the Chinese dragon” so I can remember it because I have turned the poet’s suggestion into some warped obsessive desire to memorize a series of things I pass between Baltimore and Larchwood. At first you think it’s a conical hedge that you can memorize, but behind it is a long trail of hedge, and at the other end it raises up again into another cone.
A hedge that’s like a Chinese dragon. Actually, it’s not like a Chinese dragon at all. I call it “the Chinese dragon” so I can remember it because I have turned the poet’s suggestion into some warped obsessive desire to memorize a series of things I pass between Baltimore and Larchwood. At first you think it’s a conical hedge that you can memorize, but behind it is a long trail of hedge, and at the other end it raises up again into another cone.
Four
There is a big thick pine tree so big that it blocks one entire half of a duplex. The whole thing. The porch, the middle windows, the top story windows. And it comes about halfway out into the sidewalk. That’s probably not legal, but no one lives there. The house is for sale. There can’t possibly be any light in that house though.
There is a big thick pine tree so big that it blocks one entire half of a duplex. The whole thing. The porch, the middle windows, the top story windows. And it comes about halfway out into the sidewalk. That’s probably not legal, but no one lives there. The house is for sale. There can’t possibly be any light in that house though.
Five
There’s some young people’s garden that they made by fencing in the area next to their house. It has some wooden trellises that all have dead clinging to them now, and some bags of mulch and bricks that look like they were maybe part of a plan once. There’s a cooler with stickers on it for the Outer Banks. OBX. Or not the Outer Banks, maybe, but something like that. And for beer. The whole garden looks like the cold came suddenly and they had to abandon everything right there.
There’s some young people’s garden that they made by fencing in the area next to their house. It has some wooden trellises that all have dead clinging to them now, and some bags of mulch and bricks that look like they were maybe part of a plan once. There’s a cooler with stickers on it for the Outer Banks. OBX. Or not the Outer Banks, maybe, but something like that. And for beer. The whole garden looks like the cold came suddenly and they had to abandon everything right there.
Six
There used to be this big horrible grey dog that was also pathetic because it was one of those big mean dogs but it just lived outside and no one took much care of it so all it could do was woof at people. It was probably woofing for help, but from a dog like that, everything just sounds like “kill.” Then when it got really cold it stopped being there. Maybe they took it inside.
There used to be this big horrible grey dog that was also pathetic because it was one of those big mean dogs but it just lived outside and no one took much care of it so all it could do was woof at people. It was probably woofing for help, but from a dog like that, everything just sounds like “kill.” Then when it got really cold it stopped being there. Maybe they took it inside.
Seven
There’s a house that had really good Halloween decorations, and now they have pretty good Christmas decorations, still, even though today is the Feast of the Epiphany and they’re supposed to be down by now. There’s still a piece of spider web stuck to the top of the porch, though.
There’s a house that had really good Halloween decorations, and now they have pretty good Christmas decorations, still, even though today is the Feast of the Epiphany and they’re supposed to be down by now. There’s still a piece of spider web stuck to the top of the porch, though.
Eight
There’s another guy on the other side of Larchwood who does one of those nutty Christmas displays with Santa riding in an inflatable helicopter and the propeller turns and stuff. But he took everything right down on New Year’s Eve, which is the real day you’re supposed to.
There’s another guy on the other side of Larchwood who does one of those nutty Christmas displays with Santa riding in an inflatable helicopter and the propeller turns and stuff. But he took everything right down on New Year’s Eve, which is the real day you’re supposed to.
Nine
On our block are three old tyme lamp posts that are just a little taller than me, and two weird globes, about the size of baseballs, that light up in alternating red, blue and green.
On our block are three old tyme lamp posts that are just a little taller than me, and two weird globes, about the size of baseballs, that light up in alternating red, blue and green.
Ten
The saddest thing on our block is our banana tree. Which must be dead. Around November, the banana tree, which in the summer looked really tropical, turned brown and thin and withery. The banana tree had been big enough to block the windows of our house, and the whole porch, but then when the cold came, it just drooped down and browned. When we put up the holiday decorations after Thanksgiving, Andrew cut the giant banana leaves down and just left the green stalks. They were strangely pliable, we could bend them with our hands. Inside, the stalk was layered, like an onion, where every ring of the onion had grown up into a big banana leaf. We didn’t know if it would be ok to pull out the stalks, so we decided to wait for Getnet Getnet, the landlord. But then before we could ask him, and before I could put all the cut brown banana leaves into those bags that you have to use or the garbage won’t take them away, it snowed. Now all the old banana leaves are piled up under the snow, and the stalks are poking out, looking sad and yellow. One or two of them has just folded over.
The saddest thing on our block is our banana tree. Which must be dead. Around November, the banana tree, which in the summer looked really tropical, turned brown and thin and withery. The banana tree had been big enough to block the windows of our house, and the whole porch, but then when the cold came, it just drooped down and browned. When we put up the holiday decorations after Thanksgiving, Andrew cut the giant banana leaves down and just left the green stalks. They were strangely pliable, we could bend them with our hands. Inside, the stalk was layered, like an onion, where every ring of the onion had grown up into a big banana leaf. We didn’t know if it would be ok to pull out the stalks, so we decided to wait for Getnet Getnet, the landlord. But then before we could ask him, and before I could put all the cut brown banana leaves into those bags that you have to use or the garbage won’t take them away, it snowed. Now all the old banana leaves are piled up under the snow, and the stalks are poking out, looking sad and yellow. One or two of them has just folded over.
John’s beautiful scientist sister predicted that this would happen, but we didn’t believe her. The banana tree looked too strong to wither and die. She also said that the banana tree would be back in the spring, just as big as before, and that it would never produce bananas because the climate here is too cold.
Maybe these things will also come, or not come, to pass.
That describe-ten-things-without-metaphor seems like really good writing practice.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I was writing yesterday was more-or-less a memory recollection of a mostly insignificant event, and then I started berating myself for writing something boring and not creative enough since it was bland non-fiction.
I started off setting up a page that could serve as inspiration, and at the top of that page I made a ground rule that I could not explicitly type anything down that 'joked' about hating any idea or myself.
I don't know where I was going with this comment. Let's keep writing.