The penultimate morning of a month of writing a poem a day, NaPoWriMo2017. Today, the prompt asks us to take our favourite poem (what, only one?) and pick a noun. Free write around for five minutes. Then, construct.
It had to be a Mary Oliver. But which one? In the end, I realised the one that sings in my heart most is The Journey. And the noun I chose is the title word, since I have always had a fondness for those words with that jour syllable within. And I have also always loved the Irish farewell of ‘Safe journey, safe home.’
Sojourning
Stillness within movement
Encased in the metal jacket
A bullet train, a jet plane
Propulsion towards barriers
Speed, customs, immigration
But now is the in between
Neither here nor there.
The day opens, a fresh page
The hand moves across it
In transit
As plodding as Shank’s pony, sometimes
Loud and crowded as the Port Authority
Everyone everywhere is making
Their connection, like poetry.
Safe journey. Safe home.
Sojourning Smith 