Replenishing the Imagination
This has been the season of the long drive—an escape from the news, from the home office, the Zoom meetings, the blank page. Most of the time it feels like running away, but today? Today the sky falls blue through the window and I grab the keys without thinking, pulled by an invitation of light.
If this is a running away then it’s a happy running away. More a running to. What better way to cure my writing ills?
Julia Cameron understands. In her book, The Right to Write, she says,
I am very aware that the art of writing devours images and that if I am going to write deeply, frequently, and well, I must keep my inner pond of images very well stocked. When I want to restock my images, I get behind the wheel of my car.”
I drive with the windows down and the air conditioning on. The sun burns through the windshield and the cooled air feels good but I need more than cool on my skin. I need the breeze to ripple my hair, feel the wildness of strands licking my face. I have the music loud—it fills the air around me, drifts out and spills onto the road I leave behind.
This is pure indulgence, wild abandon. I let this windblown reckless feeling take me, music soothing away everything but this moment. I am here. I am alive. The fragility of life and a world on fire cannot steal my eyes for this moment.
When I drive, the places I pass become mythical memories…vibrant colors, quaint villages, loquacious livestock. Everyday images lose their luster in the ho-hum drudgery of life. Sometimes beauty can be better seen from a few paces back…or through an open window, driving by. Loping hills and grassy meadows stir my appetite for words. Rich sunsets create a poetry all their own.
My imagination soars.
this gray
ribbon
wraps around
me; cradles
me close in her
bands
of loops
and bows. powder
blue heads
of
chicory
stand erect—
intertwined
with lacy faces
of queen
Anne—sentinels
of this highway.
a lonely
cow peers
through
doleful eyes,
lows
softly in my wake.
I drive on.
What is replenishing the imagination for you today?
Photo by Patrick Emerson, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Laura Boggess, Tweetspeak Poetry’s 2021 Poet Laura.
Browse more posts from our Poet Laura
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A Novella From Laura Boggess
Lyrical and whimsical writer Laura Boggess brings us an inspiring story of one woman’s quest to put her life back together. Poetry plays a part. But not before a book gets delivered to the wrong house on a windy, impossible day.
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Bethany Rohde says
Thank you for this. I just love this, Laura: “If this is a running away then it’s a happy running away. More a running *to*.”
This is a little how I feel when I postcard a friend. It gives me something beautiful to move into for a few moments. Like pushing open the door of some spare(d) room that’s beautifully cleaned and untouched by the rest of the busy house. Writing the card is a way to sit down in that space’s plush chair with a little window-view of the neighbor’s garden and watch the weight of a bluebird slightly wobble a maple branch as it lands.
laura says
Your description of postcard writing gave me a little deep breath this morning, Bethany! What a gift your little notes must be to their recipients. Thank you for this little picture of “running to.”
Bethany says
Thank you, Laura. And huge congrats again on your newly published book! 🙂 Delighted for you!