Sally Gerard

Between the Sheets.

Sunset last night curtesy of: God Almighty.

I don’t get it, almost every student I’ve ever had says they hate writing. What’s not to like? I love the thin black ink spilling onto the page. You can create whole worlds with people that do whatever you tell them. You can spin planets on their axis, crush evil with good, make sunsets that inspire awe. And it all comes alive! Well, it seems alive in the moment, ’till the ink runs out. The best part is the blank page; the only limit is your mind and everything is possible: all the setting, all the character, all the plot, and suddenly there’s a hill and she paces as they talk. That’s where the magic happens, because even if you decide it’s cheesy, and no one would believe it–you swipe your pen across those lines, sit quiet a moment, and begin again on a blank line.

And I ask myself, what can poetry do? Poetry can bring vision to a dark world; it can open an idea up for scrutiny; it can bring a blizzard in the middle of summer; it can wrench emotion from the hardest heart; it can bring a laugh, confuse you, anger you, challenge you; it can make understandable that which confounds; it can bring the mightiest steed into being as you ride along with him into the stars!

We’ve been getting so much rain that a chorus of what sounded like hundreds of frogs could be heard out in the pasture last night. Where do they come from? I’ve never heard that kind of choir out here and we paused and laughed and squished our way out through the bog to listen. I caught the storm leaving over the barn and then the incredible sunset. I began to ponder, which always gets me into trouble, but here you go:

The world needs less apathy, more wowsah! The world needs less rush, more smelling the roses and listening to frog choruses. The world needs less ignore it, more notice and fix. The world needs less disgust, more openness. The world needs less bitter, more joy. The world needs less fail, more learn and move on. The world needs less pre-packaged, more home grown. The world needs less IDK, more willing to risk. The world needs less walk away, more engage. The world needs less pointless, more what really counts. The world needs less “you’re late,” more “tell me about your day.” The world needs less frustration, more calm. The world needs less secrets, more honesty and truth. The world needs less grunting & griping, more patience. The world needs less needy, more provide. The world needs less heartache, more “I love you, babe.”