Enga mellom fjella

Above Vaucluse II; shared my gzaibun

Above Vaucluse II

         after Kent Lovelace

In the lengthening shadows:
orchards at rest,
an adagio of autumn,
thoughts floating as if
to test my attraction to quiet.

...what harvest needs to be gleaned.
...what trees pruned come the cold.
...what bold bloom in the Spring.

Shadows envelop Vaucluse
in an adagio of dreams.

© Kåre Enga [166.149] 2009-07-21

A workshop poem. We went to the Dana Gallery to look at art then sat in Fact & Fiction and wrote.

Blah-blah-blah: Went to Parris' yesterday evening in Cyr. Kate was having a bad day (similar to many of mine) but finally got us there (next time I'll remember the way!). We roasted hotdogs over the fire. I liked Frances' meat chili; Parris' loves Kate's broccoli salad; we all managed to lessen Nona's load of strawberries, raspberries and angelfood cake. I brought macaroni salad and potato salad . I just was in no mood to cook. Guess what I'm eating this next week.

Kate's and Nona's novels are coming along quite nicely. Kate's has wacky characters in a 'town' where the major business is the cemetery and Nona's George is despicable even looking back 130 years to pioneer Minnesota/Dakota.

Nancy read a story about lost and 'ghosts'. She recently rewrote it and it really shows promise. Her opening is a very strong 'red herring'.

I had them read 4 of my gzaibun (hybrid prose and poetry). They liked 3. Parris thinks these are stronger than my poetry and Nona finds them more accessible. Parris pointed out the line: "until the dawn thawed the ache of my grief" from "to a Dog Star".

Real-time feedback is nice and this group is beginning to know me well enough to compare and contrast my work. It's quite different than what they-all write.

It did not cool down last night... too muggy. But it won't hit 100 again for maybe a week. Humidity during the day frequently gets down to 10%. Me sitting in the river (no photos please ) is a distinct possibility.

Images: Embers at dusk; grass still green under ponderosa pine; abandoned cars and stoves and... things; log cabin; yurt sweat lodge; silence; Pedro-the-chihuahua wandering off; mosquitoes; the sting of deet; a worn path to the outhouse, magazine sheets, a wooden lid and seat, a curtain... no door!

The gzaibun I shared:

"166.92 "to the Dog Star" <GZ>" 
"166.86 "vacuum cleaner" <GZ>" 
"166.104 "a man with a pen" <GZ>" 
"166.99 "every utterance" <GZ>" 

Montana: 75° at 11 a.m. in Missoula.

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