beautiful monsters

writer's block

I only had one exercise this week: Write a poem about an object, quality, element or creature of the natural world; Use the form of a poem in the reader handout; Have the least natural thing you can imagine enter the poem. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard, right? Well, I don’t get it. Does least natural mean man-made, or just something that doesn’t belong in the poem, or…? I’m trying to write a poem about a ruru (morepork). What is the least natural thing that could creep into a poem about Ninox novaeseelandiae? My father pointed out that in Maaori tradition they are the spirits of the deceased, but I think he was getting confused between unnatural and supernatural.

I’m having my almost monthly “I don’t know what I want to do with my life” crisis. I think I’m going to go back to varsity next year, after all. I’m thinking about doing a Political Science major, and doing a couple more Maaori papers but not a major. What I really want to do is travel… go to Indiana, travel up through Minnesota to Canada, then head for Mexico and travel south from there. And maybe, somehow, try and get to Laos on the way back home. And the Solomon Islands. And…

There are two problems with my travel plan. Money… and company. Don’t want to travel alone; been there, done that, not doing it again until I grow a penis and a “don’t mess with me” look, or at the very least a large dose of self-esteem and confidence. There are only a few people I think I could travel with, and none of them are making any itchy-feet noises at the moment. Also some of them have partners who would either tag along or feel left out, neither of which would be very happy for me.

I might have to settle for somewhere closer to home. I have enough airpoints to get to Australia or somewhere in the Pacific…

Posted by Fionnaigh at August 20, 2003 09:15 AM