This particular writing challenge was to write a poem that stretches my comfort zone with line breaks. Well, this poem stretched my comfort level with many things.

At first I thought perhaps I’d write a poem with very long lines, or maybe one with very short lines. Or a poem that blends the two? Who knows what that might look like? I vacillated between all of these ideas.

Maybe breaking apart lines to emphasize (or de-emphasize) sounds or rhymes, or creating a moment of hesitation in the middle of a thought might be the way to go.

My method was to read several different poems, and then I began to write. Every poem and its process brings out some different part of myself. Even the story poems that are outside of my personal experience have a piece of me woven into them.

Before posting this poem, I was reading the story of a sweet friend who has deconstructed and reconstructed the faith and religion of her youth. I could totally connect with all that she shared.

For each one of us the process is different, but I hope for each one of you that you love and live near the edge of the world with gusto.

Dry Bones

She loved

near the edge of the world
with gusto
          if not lunacy.
           she chose unity
with herself.

She lost her vision
from living in the darkness—
            the rose colored glasses 
             foggy from flashes
of light.

A ray of hope
in no man’s land
               she teetered on the edge
                of the cliff. The sedge
a sign

of her dry bones.
the moon rose
                unbidden,
                nearly hidden
by love.

She loved 
wild and reckless—
                 in the light
                  no danger of flight—
I think.

—Carla Jeanne Picklo Jordan