NaPoWriMo-DAY FOUR

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: Write a poem based on an image from a dream. We don’t always remember our dreams, but images or ideas from them often stick with us for a very long time. 

LOVE SONG 

Alfred seemed a little weird. He said things that were deep. 

He told me he heard mermaids when he walked down by the sea. 

So, one night without the moon, when my eyes wouldn’t sleep, 

I decided to go out and see if they would sing to me. 

Wearing just a t-shirt and my white pajama pants 

I stumbled out the door into the wild and windy dark. 

I think I was awake or maybe walking in a trance. 

I remember running from a dog--at least I heard him bark. 

The sand was cold between my toes. The wind tore through my hair. 

The sea was wild with crashing waves and white with foaming spray. 

Like tresses blown from horses manes they tossed into the air 

And then would thunder to the beach to hiss and fade away. 

I thought that I heard voices, maybe music, maybe screams 

Sea-girls wreathed in sea-weed rode the surf and called my name. 

I know it really happened. Or maybe it was dreams. 

Still, I heard mermaids singing in the darkness just the same.

NaPoWriMo--Day Two

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: write a poem about a specific place — a particular house or store or school or office. Try to incorporate concrete details, like street names, distances, the types of trees. Little details like this can really help the reader imagine not only the place, but its mood.

Maple Leaf School 

Report cards saved by his mother, 

Perfect attendance, high marks, 

First, Second and Third Grades 

In a three-room school 

In Tillamook, Oregon. 

Almost a hundred years later 

I found it, still standing. 

No longer housing children. 

Yet there lingered scents

Of oiled floors and crayons. 

No more shouting and singing 

In the school yard. 

No patient teachers 

Guiding young students 

Through lessons and texts. 

Now restored, open for visits 

Maple Leaf School 

Where Dad learned his numbers 

And his letters, 

In Tillamook, Oregon.

HANNAH BRIDGE-Linn County Oregon

Oregon has more covered bridges than any other state west of the Mississippi. Pioneers put coverings over their wooden bridges to keep them from rotting away in the Northwest’s damp weather.

  

I did a road tour of some of the bridges of Linn County one bright September morning and came away with a camera full of reference photos for my paintings.  The large side openings and arched doorways of Hannah Bridge caught the sunshine and cast inviting shadows across the interior.   

After some struggles with darks and lights and then having fun with colors, I came up with this portrait of Hannah.

I started with a sketch which I used to establish a composition and some of the values before transfering the line drawing to watercolor paper.

I put in a loose background of backlit greens and some deeper colors of shrubbery.

Then I added more detail to the trees and bushes before working on the bridge itself.

It was a challenge to avoid putting in every detail of the trusses and beams.  When I felt I had that handled, I started working the with complementary colors of purple and yellow in the lights and darks of the bridge.

The finished product has a nice depth and dimension.  It brings back the serenity of that morning and seems to invite further exploration of the lush Willamette Valley.  

You can find this piece and many more of my paintings here at my Etsy site.