01/02/2010: "The Bus"

I am looking at the back end
of a double-decker bus.
I’m not sure where it’s going,
but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be
left standing here
when it pulls away from the curb,
so I climb aboard,
try to find a comfortable seat
somewhere near the door.
I ask the driver to tell me
when it's time to get off
but he is noncommittal.
I guess I’ll know
when we get to the end of the road.

This poem was inspired by a photograph I once took of a double-decker bus in Russell Square, London, and by relationships that are now passing through my life.

I am constantly amazed at the power of poetry to bring clarity to what I could not begin to describe in everyday discourse. When I don't know what I think or feel or want, the most productive thing I can do is put pen to ink and out will flow a metaphor like a model of the inside turned out.

It doesn't do to tackle the issue head on. Much better to come at it sideways, through a visual prompt perhaps. That's what I did this evening. Confused and ambivalent, I sat down at my kitchen table, looked up and the poem just fell from the sky, or more literally from the photo on the wall.

I see things more clearly now.

Three morals in this story:

1. Poetry brings clarity to our thoughts and feelings.
2. Almost any sensory prompt can serve as a portal to the poetic.
3. I prefer to move under my own power and rarely take the bus when I can walk.

Yours with creativity and imagination,
Darlene