No, it's just Poetry Thursday. And since Blogger has prevented anyone else from talking here, by cutting off the comments, it looks like I better keep the conversation flowing all by myself. So here it is: a poem I wrote when I was in Oregon for the first and only time:
BAD MOOD IN OREGON
The March trees
are different here
on the other coast.
Along Route 5,
they point upward
like intractable feathers.
Only the internal weather
travels with us
wherever we go--
layer after layer
of illusory greys.
Look deeper, the sky says.
Wake up!
If you knew
you would die today,
would these clouds
be your final vison?
58 comments:
Gorgeous photo - memories of long ago trips down that coast flood me. I just love the wildness, and we later found our own favourite on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Hoep your comments are working again, patry! I enjoyed your posts yesterday.
I can nearly smell the sea, feel the damp breeze.
I've had three post days, usually on the day off, after a week of being too pooped to write coherently when I got home from work.
The comments are working again. Woot!
marja-leena: When we were in Washington, we kept seeing the signs for Vancouver. If only there had been more time...
zhoen: I'm so thrilled to read your comment. Now I have to see if I can actually visit your blog.
beautiful piece
description and introspection
combined
thank you
Thank you, Floots. Like the new photo.
Ah, so you can do everything? Write anything? Your poem is beautiful and honest. In honor of National Poetry month, I'll try. Thanks for inspiring me to aspire, Patry.
Oh the Oregon coast. One of the most beautiful places on earth. You unlocked the secret of the sky here, on your first and only time: Look deeper. It's the only way to survive the winter.
I'm so glad your comments are back. Can you see our blog yet? That seemed like such a strange malfunction.
Thanks, Amy. I will be looking forward to your poem(s)!
robin: I'm so grateful that I got to see that coast in my lifetime, and that I had plenty of guidance from good friends who warned me about potentially dangerous travel routes.
I haven't been to that coast, but I can see it is worth the trip. I love the last 3-4 lines of your poem.
"Always take the weather with you..." You reminded me of that line from a Crowded House song but I like your poem better.
(The dreaded new version of Blogger prevented me from commenting even on my own blog for a couple of weeks...)
kenju: Oh, you must see it!
p.v.: Glad to know that I'm not the only victim of the conspiracy. (And now I must check out the Crowded House song.)
Oh, those West Coast trees. I miss them so. :( Lovely evocation of a bad mood--I always find it hard to write a bad mood piece that doesn't sound, well, whining.
And THANK YOU so much for what you said about my blog! I'm all aglow from your comments. :-D
Thanks for visiting my blog. Blogger turned of my comments too this week.
I like the poem.
mardougrrl: The only way to write about a bad mood without whining is to talk back to it. In such a beautiful place, feeling anything but bliss almost seems like a sin. p.s. Happy to spread the word about your wonderful blog.
gautami: Thank you! It's also good to know that Blogger wasn't persecuting me personally...
Patry, I hate that I can't view the photos on your blog anymore. Not sure why, but I can only imagine what a beauty this one is. I hope the gray skies on your coast clear soon from the current storm blowing your way. Love the poem and glad you enjoyed my write-up on Rebecca Walker. Talk about someone who carries layers of complexities with her wherever she goes...and funnels them into her writing with so much furor and finesse.
Patry, the essence of Oregon in March captured here. You have to love our damp, wet weather in order to live here. It creates time to read and not feel guilty about being indoors. My father could never understand why I chose to live here.
k: I was at the gymn today and happened to pick up a magazine that included a very intriguing article about RW. Sorry about the photos!
jone: I could definitely live there! I got nostalgic for Portland after reading an article in the NYTimes today.
As soon as I pick up your habit on including pictures from flickr with the share-freely license on my site, you start to show us what you can do with a camera. I just checked out your photostream -- wow! Those seascapes are just delightful. (As for my own site, I'm going to stick with the shots others take for now . . .)
So glad you vanquished the evil Blogger! I wanted to tell you I absolutely loved the seagull picture a couple of posts down from here.
Peter: The Pacific Northwest was so gorgeous, it was impossible NOT to get a few beautiful shots. Usually, however, I'm with you...more than willing to showcase the work of others.
sara: I love that seagull, too! Some days I see him announcing the good news; other days, he's just squawking. It's definitely in the eye of the beholder.
I have only been to the Washington Coast and I fell in love with it. I liked your poem, that you said to look deeper. .
Welcome, Marcia! Always good to see a new face, especially one who leaves behind a kind comment.
I have been unable to leave you any comments! Why?? Now I have lost the ones I just wrote. Have no idea if you will get this or not. Have I told you lately how much I hate blogger?!!!
Suffice it to say I love the photo of the gull below, miss you being in the Pacific NW - even if you had the rainy day gloomies, and hope you will stay safe from the big storm moving your way.
We are having great sunshine now, and spent a perfectly beautiful day on Puget Sound looking at gray whales snacking! Will send you some pics.
sky: So happy to see you here, and please let me apologize for blogger being such a bad host. Optimist that I am, I always hoping things will get better. My "bad mood in Oregon" had nothing to do with the weather, or the place. It was my own internal stuff, and fortunately, it was shortlived. How can you possibly hang onto your silly negative thoughts and worries in a landscape like that? It felt like a travesty. Thus, the poem.
p.s. The storm was wild, and we lost power for several hours. Rumor has it we're in for more torrential rains this afternoon. Can't wait to see the pictures of the grey whales!
I spent some time on the coast of Oregon a few years ago with two Floyd girlfriends (one had a daughter in CA we were visiting). I felt so invigorated that I threw my arms up and shouted, "I'm in remission!" Healed of all things that felt wrong. Funny things like that do happen to me at the ocean. I'll never forget the giant rocks on the shore and walking in between them.
Glad to have a voice again. I hate being shut up, you know. Makes me want to talk all the more.
colleen: A bad sore throat effectively shut me up today, and I didn't like it one bit either! When it's totally gone, I'll have to go down to the beach and reclaim my right to shout a little bit.
Hooray! Your comments are back. First - congratulations on your well-deserved win of the Thinking Blog Triple Crown :)
And - I wish my bad moods resulted in poetry as good as yours!
Personally, I was happy to see your three posts in one day! I've been missing your regular updates, but know that it is good for the collective creative "universe" that you're getting your work done...The photo was lovely, a part of the country I've never visited, and your poem sang--especially with the question at the end. Thank you for the reminder...
Love,
D.
As promised, here's my poor attempt at haiku:
Pen floated above,
Paper awaited its touch.
As one, they were more.
Eh, I'm no Patry Francis.
Amy
Lovely, in a morose sort of way. :)
I'm no poet--am happy to confine whatever poetic impulses I have to sentences within my fiction--but I do enjoy others' admirable efforts (and this taste of yours especially)!
tinker: Thanks again for the award. I only wish the comments had been open for that one, instead of my bad mood.
delia: I miss the interaction of regular posting and commenting, too. Soon, I hope...In the meantime, thanks for not abandoning me.
amy: A writing haiku! I love it!!!
therese: Often my poems begin in a morose state, but the words inevitably lead me out of it.
I was sad when I learned you'd been here and I'd missed you! Oregon specializes in melancholy skies, it's true.
Dale, Sorry to have missed you, too. Next time, definitely next time. As for the melancholy skies, they were all internal. The state--the entire Northwest--is beautiful enough to lift even the darkest spirits.
Clearly we have three snapshots here. We have the photo, the poem, and the emotional imagery that we all(the readers/writer) personally attach to the first two. The thrid is what gives this wings, great wings.
Wonderful poem. But I can't imagine what got you in a bad mood. I only picture you in good moods.
Tish
I am such an East Coaster -- I'll have to someday make it back out to the West Coast, and particularly to the Pacific Northwest, and see all the beauty that you've described.
I absolutely love this - the poem and the photo - brilliant! JP
Tish: I promise there will be no "bad mood in New York" poems. Just sunshine and lots of cupcakes.
nova: So happy to see you here again, fellow east coaster. I hope you get out to Oregon though. It is as breathtaking as I imagined it to be--no, more so.
deb: Thank you!
lance! Just saw your comment, and very much like your interpretation.
you can get in a bad mood on any coast---but I find it harder on the west one.
I went to coastal Oregon once so far in my life, with someone I loved, who I let go out of my life.
Hope your blogger troubles subside. I have been having trouble making new posts.
Thanks for commenting on my Flick pix.
Cool poem.
It looks like you've gotten your comments back Patry. I suppose we shouldn't be too querulous about blog upsets as its a free deal. I've known days like your Oregon day here on the North Shore. I thought February would never end. Now, however, with the return of spring, joy abounds. No green yet, but the birds are singing!
I enjoye reading your blog this afternoon.. I do hope your next Oregon coast trip is as wonderful as my trips have been. It is my favorite place period.
Happy Wednesday.
shelby
www.shelbydupree.blogspot.com
The "internal weather" -- that turn of phrase describes it most accurately. This image is clearly staying with me.
That photo is just gorgeous...and your poem evokes a multitude of emotions. Thanks.
So...not to be an internet stalker or anything, but...
Should we be concerned that the last time you posted here, albeit three times in one day, was Friday the 13th?
Just asking. No pressure. :)
lorna: And if you do get in a bad mood in the midst of all that splendor, you have no choice but to feel guilty about it. How much fun is that?
gerry: Your Oregon story is a sad and cloudy one. The photos you've been posting on Flickr get better all the time though.
shelby: Thanks for stopping by to read my much neglected blog.
kg: Maybe we should start the internal weather report?
carla: Thanks and welcome!
sara: I'm blaming it all on Friday the 13th.
I love that poem - I like poems that leave me surprised/jolted at the end.
I like the line "Wake up!" A barbaric yawp of sorts.
Chiefbiscuit: Your face reminds me how much I miss my blog friends.
Kate: I like the word yawp! Thank you for leaving it here--and welcome to my blog. The proprietor has been delinquent and away, but will return. I hope.
Thanks for the tips on the blog sites. They look interesting! As for proscrastination, I can't help you. I'm writing to you instead of working on MY novel!
Sara's right - last post on Fri. 13th is ominous - your fans await. How bout a Mayday post.
Are you posting back here in the comments, Patry?! Just checking in because I miss you.
Are you okay, Patry? It's unusual for you to be gone for so long. Maybe you're just busy finishing up your second novel. Did anyone else do the Third Day Book Club?
I love this picture, Patry! And I LOVE your new website! (It's been a while since I've swung around to say hi).
I can't wait to hear about your new book - I also try to write 2,000 a day but lately it's been like ... well, 200. If I'm lucky. But 1,000 seems completely reasonable, so I'm going to modify my goal as well!
I'm beginning to join amishlaw in worrying. I know blogger has been acting up, and you certainly deserve a break. But the lack of posts, plus the ominous last lines of your poem create, well, a bad mood. As soon as you can, please let us know. Thanks.
Steve, Amishlaw, Colleen, r: Thanks so much for stopping by and worrying about me. I've missed being here, too.
so evocative...I spent four years in Oregon, and knew that same bad mood (or its cousin) for most of that time. The only place I could escape it was at the Coast; and the windier, rainier, colder the better.
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