March Slice of Life No. 10.
Evening came and I had not written a slice. I wondered, what should I write? Blank. I only knew that it would be short.
I thought about today being the 9th day of March and my name being Nine. That idea lasted about nine seconds.
Then I thought about the time change this weekend. A couple years ago, in protest of Daylight Savings Time, I wrote an imitation of Green Eggs and Ham — “Change the Clock.” Have fun reading it if you have some time [pun intended]. But I do not want to write about time changes today.
Then I thought about this time of the year [there I go using that word “time” again] when weather seesaws between winter and spring. I remembered a poem written by a second grader a few years ago. It would be perfect. But I couldn’t find the poem.
As I was searching my files for the poem, I happened to open an old publication I had filed in a folder titled, of course, Old Publications. [That’s probably why I didn’t find the poem I was originally searching for.] Here’s the title page:
And since I was more in a distracted mood than a writing mood, I began thumbing through the 587-page digitized volume. I started at page 1. [The advertisements were fascinating. I will share some in another slice.] On page 60, I paused to skim the first paragraph of an article titled “That Farm.”
“Have you ever known the country in the spring? Not the season of the poet’s imagination, nor his country, but springtime on a working farm . . .”
The words “spring,” “poet’s imagination” and “springtime” grabbed my attention. The sentence continued for several magazine lines. In fact, that single sentence had more than 50 words. I read it twice. I found the images interesting. I reworked the prose to turn it into a poem.
Country Spring, 1913
Springtime in the country is not
the season of the poet’s imagination.
On a working farm, spring is
where the warblers are
Leghorn and Plymouth Rock hens
singing an egg chorus,
where the lowing herd is
producing milk at
eights cents a quart,
where the squeal of a pig is
the spring-song of a twenty-dollar bill,
where the soil, rich and black, is
turning off plows like chocolate,
four hundred acres in springtime.
© 2018 Alice Nine
________
Postscript:
The first eleven lines of my poem are from the first two sentences in the text.
Text:
Have you ever known the country in spring? Not the season of the poet’s imagination, nor his country, but springtime on a working farm where the warblers are Leghorn and Plymouth Rock hens singing an egg chorus; where the lowing herd is producing milk worth eight cents a quart; where the squeal of a pig is the spring-song of a $20 bill (barring cholera). Springtime where 400 acres of impoverished and abandoned land begin to respond to the application of theories you have cherished through a successful dry-goods career.
. . . that was the soil. The rich, black loam turned off the mould-boards of the plows like chocolate, and such crops as it produced!
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This drives me to distraction. There are so many things that could lead to a response. One, I’ve always liked the number 9. I remember being very pleased to find that the Chinese consider it the luckiest number. Then, there’s my aversion to these silly time shifts that throw kids off balance for several days. Then, there’s your writing process, which resembles mine in it’s apparent randomness or meandering (let me just read a 587-page file to speed up my idea generation. But mostly, I just appreciate that though it resembled procrastination, it was not a waste. Your poem is beautiful, both in its brevity and its timeliness. I had to think about the “turning off plows like chocolate” line, but it was worth the time!
Hahaha! I love your take on my process: “let me just read a 587-page file to speed up my idea generation.” With that single comment, I can tell we have some critical things in common. I know what you mean about the “like chocolate” line, but I couldn’t pass it up; after all, it is in the original text.
I like how you took us on your journey of not knowing what to write to the inspiration you found and finally the poem that came put of it. Thanks for sharing your journey.
🙂 I thought of you and your project while I was reading some of the ads in that old magazine. I will probably mention you when I share them next week in a slice.
I really admire the way you narrate your writing process AND produce beautiful poetry. This poem seems like it was singing out to be written. I like your inspiration, too. Thanks for sharing how to find old magazines in the comments!
Thank you… and you are so welcome.
Alice, this is such a creative slice! What beautiful language in the original (that egg chorus!) and I love your poem. Your asides amused me–especially “That’s probably why I didn’t find the poem I was originally searching for.” I can relate only too well! Thanks also as you’ve reminded me that I have a bag of vintage magazines saved from the recycling bin at the town Redemption Center. I remember that the advertisements were fascinating. Perhaps I can find a slice in there as well…
Thank you, Molly. I am going to be watching for your “vintage-inspired” slice. I hope I don’t miss it! About my asides… I find myself doing that when I present trainings and somehow it seems to engage the participants. We either share a good laugh or we chase something down a rabbit hole and they all get so engaged. Hopefully the chase is constructive. Sometimes I’m not too sure and I’m hoping no administrator pops into the session. LOL. Back to the asides… I tell students they are “thought shots.” And “thought shots” are shared by the narrator. Or in third person stories, they are shared by the character whose point of view is being present at that moment in the story. I recently read an editor’s recommendation that they be put in italics in the text. I have students use ( ) or [ ] since italics don’t work in handwritten text and I don’t want them to use ” ” and have it misunderstood as dialogue. Now, I’m rambling . . . . 🙂
The egg chorus
sings of this
morning’s hunt
for treasure,
gold within
boxes, opened
just a crack,
we discover life’s
guilty pleasures.
— doing some line-lifting to leave poems as comments this morning. Thank you for the inspiration.
-Kevin
http://dogtrax.edublogs.org
Thank you, Kevin. I enjoy your “line-lifting” poetry. I see you liked that “egg chorus” too.
There seems to be no end to your versatility. Keep on amazing us!
Thank you, Barbara. I like sharing with you the early (or is it late) posting time.
What a fun way to create a slice! I am glad you had access to such an unusual publication – makes me wish I wasn’t one to pitch so much stuff away.
Google and the Gutenberg Project have digitized tons of old books and magazines. They are available free. You just have to search for them and download if you want to keep a copy. I put some of the books in iBooks.