Abiquiu News
  • Home
    • News 05/23/2025
    • News 05/16/2025
    • News 05/09/2025
    • News 05/02/2025
    • News 04/25/2025
    • News 04/18/2025
    • News 04/11/2025
    • News 04/04/2025
    • News 03/28/2025
    • News 03/21/2025
    • News 03/14/2025
    • News 03/07/2025
    • News 02/28/2025
    • News 02/21/2025
    • News 02/14/2025
    • News 02/07/2025
    • Criteria for Submissions
  • News and Features
  • Dining
  • Lodging
  • Arts
  • Bloom Blog
  • Activities / Classes
    • Birding
  • Tech Tips
  • Classifieds
  • Real Estate
  • Real Estate by Owner
  • Support
  • Home
    • News 05/23/2025
    • News 05/16/2025
    • News 05/09/2025
    • News 05/02/2025
    • News 04/25/2025
    • News 04/18/2025
    • News 04/11/2025
    • News 04/04/2025
    • News 03/28/2025
    • News 03/21/2025
    • News 03/14/2025
    • News 03/07/2025
    • News 02/28/2025
    • News 02/21/2025
    • News 02/14/2025
    • News 02/07/2025
    • Criteria for Submissions
  • News and Features
  • Dining
  • Lodging
  • Arts
  • Bloom Blog
  • Activities / Classes
    • Birding
  • Tech Tips
  • Classifieds
  • Real Estate
  • Real Estate by Owner
  • Support

Dead as Winter: a misfit poem

1/17/2024

2 Comments

 
*Zach Hively

​This is challenging me. *gulp

Making art is vulnerable enough. Sharing art is a whole other practice. At least with publishing, I (typically) don’t have to perceive the responses to my work in real time.* It’s not like singing, which is probably the single most terrifying thing I’ve ever done in public.

*Though I will confess, the few times I’ve spotted someone at a restaurant reading my column in the paper, I absolutely spied on them. Trying to figure out which line got a reaction, or when they gave up and turned the page: this was fun.

But I have this pesky philosophy as a teacher and as a publisher: if I’m asking people to go through an experience, I will put myself through it too.
Picture
So, last night, I taught a Misfit Poetry workshop on Zoom through Casa Urraca Press. The participants (very game, every last one of them) walked away with drafts of two poems. I did too.

And I committed myself to sharing one of those, here, today.

Now what is a misfit poem? It’s my term (which may exist elsewhere too) for a poem that places two completely distinct subjects on equal footing in order to discover what they have to say to each other. More often than not, this conversation takes writers to new places—when they trust what emerges.

(I use this technique in all kinds of writing, especially humor columns. It’s not exclusive to poetry. But poetry, by nature, is easier to play with in a workshop setting.)

Short version: We start by recognizing whatever things, little or big, have been catching our attention lately. Pam Houston calls these things “glimmers,” which I just adore. They catch our attention for reasons; they resonate with us, somehow, as we are at that point in time.
​
Two of my glimmers yesterday were my rosemary plant blooming in the window, and this unreal way the water in the creek near here is flowing over top of the ice.
Picture
And so, here’s the poem that emerged, as it exists today, sixteen hours after its creation:
Dead as Winter
 
Snowstorm—this wild herb,
yellowing, dropping,
flips me the flowers
from the back of the guest room,
rosemary throwing lavender fuck-yous
to the out-of-doors as a balm
to me, keeping life afloat,
audaciously tiny.
 
Strata—backward,
motion over stillness,
ice floats underwater
in the creek, my creek,
this magic trick frozen
without freezing, rules
bent, the crook slipping
out, free.
 
Can't stop the brash from brashing.
The snow that melts, waters.
Will wonders never ... no.
Not until we return to
whatever unknown we slip into,
buoyant, brazen
after the singularity,
dead as winter.

The challenge for me here is not sharing my writing. I’ve thickened those calluses by now. It’s not even sharing something so new; as just about any writer on deadline understands, I often send off pieces that I’ve barely reread.
​

But those are somehow more cerebral, less transparent, than a poem. Sharing a poem that came from my own glimmers before I’ve had the chance to let it simmer, let it cure, let it settle?
Whew.

I mean, I think I like this poem. I can see it finding a home somewhere. I wrote it while abiding by the rules of the game we were playing in Misfit Poetry—rules I’m now free to break in revision. If I choose to.

For now, though, I’m going to let it simmer, cure, settle. I can’t be certain its finished yet, the way a piece of woodwork isn’t finished until it’s … you know … got the finish put on it.

We’ll see what happens! I’d love to know what you think, though. And if you want to unlock the secrets of writing misfit poems? Well … let me know that too, as I’m looking to book another workshop this spring.

Zach’s Substack is free. The free stuff today will remain free tomorrow. Someday, he might offer additional stuff. Zach+, as it were. You can tell Zach that you value his work by pledging a future paid subscription to additional stuff. You won't be charged unless he enables payments, and he’ll give a heads-up beforehand.

​
2 Comments
Virginia Ewing Hudson link
1/19/2024 08:36:18 am

I love the idea of glimmers and the contrast ones that make a conversation. Very cool. I love how the title of your poem works, too. Right away I’m thinking about all the life that lies dormant under the chill outside or unfolds in the warmth of a home. Very nice poem.

Reply
j. suris
1/20/2024 09:34:43 am

i am liking this poem today......but now as i try to click the like button,,,my response is not registering my like action....which causes me to think i must revisit and reread which i have just done. i still feel that i like it and it resonates with me.....but still when i push the like button....nothing registers my like!......and that has caused me to go on a rant in my head.....like! Like! LIKE!....thanks Zach, i really did like this poem!. Ha! there it is.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Submit your ideas for local feature articles
    Profiles
    Gardening
    Recipes
    Observations
    Birding
    ​Essays
    ​Hiking

    Authors

    You!
    Regular contributors
    Sara Wright Observations
    Brian Bondy
    Hilda Joy
    Greg Lewandowski
    ​Zach Hively
    Jessica Rath
    ​AlwayzReal

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018

    Categories

    All
    AlwayzReak
    AlwayzReal
    Brian
    Felicia Fredd
    Fools Gold
    Hikes
    History
    Jessica Rath
    Karima Alavi
    Observations
    Profiles
    Recipes
    Reviews
    Rocks And Fossils
    Sara Wright
    Tina Trout
    Zach Hively

    RSS Feed

affiliate_link