Day Twelve: Draft-a-Day (Who Does She Think She Is?)

87 deg ~ and a very late start at the desk of the Kangaroo ~ nothing but sun and 97 - 100 deg for the next seven days

Ah, Dear Faithful Readers, I have so much to say, it jumbles my mind...or addles it as my friend Anne says.  Let me start by reporting that Day Eleven was obviously a wash, which I knew would be the case for family and friends reasons.  Also because yesterday, I hosted my Who Does She Think She Is girly night.  Many, many thanks to Kelli for sending word out about the availability of this DVD, which I've long wanted to view.  So last night, seven women gathered in my living room and enjoyed each other's company and a great discussion after the film.  We were split with about half being mothers and half being without children, which made our discussion many-layered.  All thanks to the wonderful women who joined in the merriment and seriousness last night.

The night went a bit late for me, and I am a creature of habit.  I have a system and I feel most comfortable when that system remains unfiddled with.  (I know this must seem boring to many of you!)  So, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday were days spent outside my routine.  All of that is to say I just got started at my drafting at 9:45 this morning instead of 8.  I'm feeling a bit woozy and my back is acting up b/c I haven't done my therapy prescribed exercises and I've not concentrated on my posture for two days.  In other words, I thought today would be a waste at trying to draft.

How wrong I was!  I scooped all the pesky bills and papers off my desk, turned on the classical music, and picked up Simone Muench's Orange Crush, another book waiting for me to resume my reading time more fully.  I thought I'd look for words there and inspiration.  I did jot down a group of words, but I had my inspiration from the first line of the first poem, "Hex," which begins "Trouble came and trouble / brought... ."  For some reason, the phrase "The trouble with this...." popped into my head.  I jotted down some awesome words from Muench's work, maybe thirty words or so, and as I was doing so, I kept glancing up at the small postcard I had tacked above my desk with the painting "Wind Goddess" by Mayumi Oda, one of the artists featured in the video.  If you click on the image of it here, it will link to the website that sells her prints.

I wrote a draft of six tercets in under 15 minutes.  I think that's some kind of record for me.  The title of the draft is "The Trouble with This Goddess" and it bleeds into the first line.  Because I can't stop writing about my poor back, the goddess in the poem takes a big leap from the inspiration and crafts straight, metals spines for a group of "hex-slumped figures."  My favorite line right now is "a mistress of posture and flexing wings."   That the draft happened so quickly and while I'm not in the best of shape has me a bit dazed.  I know this one will need a lot of revision, or at least I think I know that, but for now I'm just happy to be 10/12 in terms of drafts completed during this two-week journey.  Two days to go and then the season of revisions will begin and I can return to reading as well.

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Orange Crush
Simone Muench
Sarabande, 2010