Brother, it's not easy keeping up with this look-at-a-book-of-poetry-a-day thing. Not when you have 24-hour trips to Kelowna and back. Instead of doing a drive-by book chat, today I'm going to post the poem I wrote to the prompt from the NaPoWriMo site: a cinquain. I've been writing a poem every day this month, so far, but I don't post them because who knows, I might want to send one out somewhere and putting them up on a blog that basks in obscurity could still be considered published, and a lot of mags want first crack. So be it. But I don't think I need worry about wanting to send off today's effort.
In addition to the site prompt, I was prompted by a sign we saw on the way. Seems the little town of Beaverdell on Highway 33 isn't able to support a gas station any more, so no there is none.
Here's my poem:
Highway 33, Rock Creek to Kelowna
It’s rude
to have a sign
that says to 'check for gas
no service for
a hundred clicks—
we’re closed’
When I wrote it I had 'no service for a hundred miles', but then Ted pointed out the sign was in kilometres (and wasn't actually 100, truth be told, but I had to make the meter work, right?), which are sometimes referred to as "clicks" here, north of the 49th. Or "klicks", I suppose. Anyway, it's a Canuck cinquain, so it's clicks, okay? In truth, it's about 85 miles from Rock Creek to Kelowna. So sue me! I hate trying to fit "kilometres" into a poem. "Miles" always sounds better. Why did we ever change?
And even though you won't see a service station on Highway 33, you might see a moose. If you happen to have your camera out of the glove compartment at the time, you might even get a decent picture of it. Sadly, I didn't. That thing leaning off to the left side of the highway in the centre of the picture is actually a moose. Probably a lady moose. No antlers. But it was exciting to see one, nevertheless!
Highway 33 is only part of the trip from Castlegar to Kelowna. Altogether it's about 300 km, or 185 miles. Takes between three and four hours, depending on traffic, road conditions, etc.
While Ted was getting fitted for an exciting new foot today, I did a power shop at Orchard Park Mall. I picked up four new poetry books and am well into one of them already. Stay tuned!
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