I attended the Hub City Writers Conference in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I wanted to learn more about writing so I signed up for a poetry class with Kate Daniels, Professor of Creative Writing, Vanderbilt University. I had never written a poem until that day and I wasn’t prepared for how challenging and exciting it felt to write this way.
I thought I’d share my poem with you…
Her Locks and Channels
It’s time.
She knows and I know, it’s time.
We sit. Our boat is still. The lake is calm.
She is weary from stroking and pulling.
Her trust in me weighs our boat and I push down my tears.
But the lock has opened.
The water has risen to meet her.
She cannot turn back, her pulls and strokes wasted.
She cannot stay still, she will sink.
The channel is clear.
She knows the way.
Time for me to move.
I offer my oar.
One stroke.
One pull.
A silk tear on the lake.
She listens to her voice, not theirs.
She thinks of her dreams, not theirs.
She sees herself through her eyes, not theirs.
She softens her grip on both oars, on them.
She is free.