September 3 Free-Write

So I'm in a poetry class. I've never taken a poetry class. Hell, I've never even been in a legit writing class. (I was in a class called "developing ideas for film" which was kind of a writing class, but it was more a film studies class...and my writing requirement was waived...still unsure how I talked my way into that one.)

So we had a free-write, as we will every week -- or so we're told. The instructor turned on music -- a track from the Miles Davis and Gil Evans album "Sketches of Spain." One of my favorites. I know almost every note of the whole album -- left to right, top-down. It was surprisingly easy to tune out the music and write with it on, and surprisingly difficult to write once he silenced it. I couldn't even finish my thought once the music was gone.

Anyway -- here's the poem that ended up coming out of me. Even though we were told later not to use the words 'life', 'love', 'soul', or 'death' in any poem, I can't figure out how -- or if -- to edit it out here.

This is the first poem I've written in a long time. Be kind, I guess...

(I also think I'm probably going to post select poems here when they're written, or if I need help from you, my readers...all nine of you.)


(note, I had some funky spacing to the poem, but blogger doesn't so much like it...oh well...)
--
I lay here -
an afternoon quickly turning to evening.
The sun sets slowly behind the boats on the bay.
The colors
purple orange red yellow
reflect off the sand
brown green, silver.
It's hard not to look up at the sun,
but it hurts.
Turns out the sun burns.

Sunglasses take away the sting,
but they take away the beauty.
Is this what sages mean when they say:
from pain comes beauty, and with beauty, pain?

It's like memories of first love:
the memories, beautiful
the act of remembering, pain.

I took her (and every girl since) to
this exact spot at
this exact time to experience
this exact feeling
ish
Each time, she battled pain while I experienced beauty
looking into the warmth of her eyes
rather than the heat of the sun.