Cacciatorepoetry.net » Skelegance (2006)

Skelegance

skelegance1

My first conscious attempt to write like poet laureate Billy Collins — a rather large departure for me. Just write what you see and feel, and worry about the poetry aspect later. No muss, no fuss, very little rhyming. I found it incredibly freeing … and it kick-started an entire new catalog of works.

As I strolled past my bedroom window,
I couldn’t help but notice a
Wide band of pink off in the horizon,
Swaddling the white sky like
A felt swath might surround a fedora,
Or maybe a derby, or a top hat —
(Nevertheless, the point is that the pink
And the white quietly coalesced).

Then, as I stooped down to
Expand the view afforded me
By the window’s pane,
I spied a black, spindly web
Rising high above my neighbor’s fence
And into the upper sky.

Bare limbs and branches,
Twigs tipped with snow,
Darted in all conceivable directions
In a truly haphazard array,
Claiming ownership of all that lie beneath,
Like an open umbrella
Whose fabric had been ripped away
By a most violent gush of wind.

But this umbrella was more magnificent
Without its fabric.
In fact, it had a certain naked elegance,
A skeletal elegance, to be exact —
Or, maybe a “skelegance,”
If you’ll allow me a little latitude.

Yes, the trees displayed a definite skelegance.
(I like the sound of that, I do.)

But now, just moments
after I stopped to peer,
The pink band in the sky …
Why, it up and disappeared!
It was the very thing that attracted me to
The window in the first place, yet
I hardly noticed its freefall
Below my neighbor’s fence.

Perhaps I was too busy staring up
At the treetop silhouette,
Inventing the word skelegance.