working on a poem...

...that isn't a riddle. It is about apricots and opals and my grandmother. I was revising a riddle, but then this new poem came into my head, and I went with it instead. I just finished reading Mostly Happy by Pam Bustin which I thought was an incredible and heartbreaking story. I loved the structure, the objects held within a red Samsonite suitcase. Maybe it got me thinking about what objects mean to me... thinking of how apricots and opals make me think of my grandmother. Because I remember the first time I tasted an apricot was at my elementary school beside her. And I remembered a ring she gave me that isn't an opal but looks like one. Thanks to Pam Bustin for the inspiration. I've also found it interesting that in her novel, she describes a certain highschool in Regina as "North Central collegiate." In some stories I've written about the same highschool, I've called it "Central Collegiate." Place is very present in Mostly Happy too: ideas of distance, home, moving, longing, absence of home. I read Mostly Happy in three sittings I was so engrossed in the story--highly recommended if you haven't read it already.

Yesterday my mother said she thought it was a good idea I am thinking of writing poems that aren't riddles. I think she was just being supportive. But I've been paranoid everyone secretly hates my riddles and is just too afraid to tell me. I had to make my boyfriend promise to tell me if they were horrible. I feel like if you really care about your writer friends, you should tell them if the projects they are doing might be a waste of time. On the other hand, maybe a writer had to go through the many unpublishable novels and horrendous poetry manuscripts before reaching their potential. Is this good advice to give a creative writing class? "Everything you write is probably going to be horrible and it probably won't get published, but you have to go through it in order to improve so let's just write some stories and get to work." I have a feeling half the class would walk out--like you aren't selling them what they want to hear.

I'm thinking of going on a train... after getting together with a dear friend who considers them, in part, a writing retreat. There are some deals on train rides right now, I've noticed. To the very place where I have a room to stay in. And the very time when I have ten days to spare. If only I had a red samsonite suitcase (which I hear you can now buy at futureshop). Buy myself a suitcase and go on a train? What objects would I put inside? Or find to bring "home" with me?