Yesterday during my roll around town I was thinking about Emily Dickinson. I saw The Belle of Amherst a few weeks ago on Netflix, so she's been on my mind, particularly the soliloquy about words, gossip and the hilarious 'reading the paper' scene.
I wasn't thinking about that as I swerved around tree roots, angled up and down curb cuts, or avoided screeching cars as they took corners on a dime. Lines of poetry were rolling through my head and I kept fighting to keep them there despite the distractions.
Then someone down the block swung into a driveway right in front of my power chair without using a turn signal. Power chairs have no brakes. I threw the joystick into reverse to try to avoid a collision, and the lines flew out of my head after I realized I was still alive.
I told myself: maybe this is why Emily stayed home.
I want to write at the most inopportune times. Lines of poetry come to me when I'm in bed. I'm too tired to get up, transfer out, start up my laptop and voice recognition software and write them down. I tell myself I'll remember them the next day. I think of them in the shower, surrounded by wet towels and slippery surfaces. My muse is not amusing. It's downright mean and it cares not a whit about access.
Emily Dickinson wrote about immortal consciousness:
Behind Me – dips Eternity-
Before Me – Immortality -
Myself – the term between –
For me it's more about-
Behind Me- coming up quickly is a BMW going 20 mph over the speed limit
Before Me- a crumbled curb cut
Myself- a statistic waiting to happen
Very pedestrian, wouldn't you say?
Yet even if I never get down one line of poetry because my voice recognition crashes or my laptop isn't waterproof, that doesn't mean the poem was never written, I tell myself.
I could get a tape recorder. The thought of rolling around muttering into one makes me wonder whether there isn't a better way to get my poetry down.
But if I did that - oh the gossip! Emily would get a chuckle out of that.
2 comments:
I have the same problem. Best place for inspiration for me is the - a-hem - toilet. Or just before I fall asleep. I have voicemail, so I call myself and leave a message. Most times, it's also ggood in the morning, although once in a while, I shake my head over what seemed briliant at 2am. And then there's the times I mumble with sleep and can't understand myself. ;)
If you get a specific digital recorder, supposedly you can just insert the card in your computer and it'll dictate to Dragon. I've yet to try it, but am thinking seriosuly of giving it a try.
I can totally relate to shaking my head at what seemed brilliant at 2 am :) Writing takes discipline and hard work, as we both know. However, sometimes those snippets that come to me, if I do get a chance to write them down, can round out a poem or story nicely. Once in a while, anyway :)
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