Anna Blake Godbout
Notes from the Ridge
Writing what I experience-not what I know…exactly
I write free verse only; I am partial to the flow of eloquent and rich language. I cannot rhyme or do metered poetry or sonnets-it reminds me of teaching language arts daily to my students at school. I do not care for writing prompts set up by someone else’s idea of what a writing subject should be. My writing “prompts” come from observing details of the world around me, what I am seeing in the moment, what I am feeling or what I have remembered from an experience in my life. As an example, in the poem The Wedding Ring Quilt, there is a direct relationship between my words and my writing what I have experienced…not exactly the typical writer’s mantra of “write what you know”:
THE WEDDING RING QUILT
This morning, the first snow of spring
kept falling like a curtain of lace across the mountains,
spilling remnants of winter
down into the stunted pine brushed valley.
“I hope it snows six feet,” I said.
Warm, weathered hands
gathered our wedding ring quilt
around the curve of me,
knowing the soft why of my words.
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I particularly love this one. It brought such a sense of calm. I remember one of our early writing group members saying, “I can’t wrap my mind around this kind of poetry.” She moved on because she never learned how to wrap her emotions around it. You FEEL it It is both visual and spiritual.
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