Pink Think: “You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.” – Joseph Joubert
I almost didn’t want to go back to reality, after four days of camping with the family, when my husband said I would not last a day camping by my lonesome self.
“Well, I could if there was a shower,” I retorted.
“And if there wasn’t one?”
The thought of no horse shows, no deadlines, no responsibilities, really appealed to me. But I decided to go home with the rest of the family. A shower really sounded good after four days of camping.
What can I say? I am prissy. And proud of it.
***
We spent two days at Bryce National Park and two days at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I haven’t done as much hiking in a long time. So many wonderful surprises, like slot canyons, and a 120-foot waterfall:
Photo of Calf Creek Falls by WorldlyTraveler on Flickr
Remote, beautiful country. Sheer poetry.
***
While I was “unplugged” for the last few days, I wrote two poems.
Well, more like songs, really. I read them to my family around the campfire. After I read my poem “My Four-Wheeling Dude,” my oldest daughter said, “Um, Mom, if you want to write your own songs, you really should do more.” She blushed. “I mean…”
“It’s true,” I said, laughing.
After I read my other one called “Born of Sunfire,” my youngest said, “I like that.”
That was fun. I think I’m going to try writing more poems.
***
Today, I got a speeding ticket for driving 20 over 35 mph zone. The cop nicely cited me for only ten over.
I felt like writing angst-filled poetry about the injustice of speed zones changing from 35 to 50 and how I was simply anticipating…
Sigh. It’s surprising I haven’t gotten ticketed sooner.
So in this depressed state of mind, I took my kids for “chores” like haircuts and shoe-shopping. I bribed them with “fun” things afterwards: I took them to a children’s bookstore, the pet store, the library, rented a DVD of Hotel For Dogs and finally, I bought us all banana Icees from the nearby Maverick store.
At the pet store I came this close to buying my youngest a kitten and my boy a guinea pig; I was in such a strange frame of mind. At the library, my youngest said – noticing the book sale – “Too bad we can’t stop…”
“Why not?” I said. I herded them in, they picked some books, scored a hard-back bird book for fifty cents, and we went for those Icees.
I drove the speed limit with two kids smiling quite happily in the back seat of our car.
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