Waiting for "Waiting for Columbus"
January 30, 2009
I’m working the copy-edit of Waiting for Columbus. Reading the entire novel from imagined cover to imagined cover…line by line, word by word. I am realizing, again, that this actually a pretty funny book in places. And I realized how lonely a business this writing game is. You do it all alone. You sit in your office and write and edit, and you’re alone. Your wife is upstairs. Your daughter in bed. And there you are…alone with your mind, and the words on the page, and the story pulled from some well in your subconscious. No wonder so many writers drink. But it's such rewarding work!!!! To create worlds and characters!!! This is not a complaint; rather, it's a recognition. I'm so utterly blessed...
Incase you’re not signed up to get a weekly “Sorbet” poem from me, here’s this week’s ditty:
The Smash-up
Icy street reminder.
The morning after January rain.
An uncontrolled skid onto the sidewalk.
Moving sideways toward a sign.
Stopped sideways like an idiot.
I tiptoe back onto the road and slo-mo drive
to drop her at school, and take myself to work.
This morning I remembered smashing the van
into a truck last summer – how
the worst part of it all
was my daughter scared and crying
in the back seat. How
for a few horrible seconds
I didn’t know that she was all right.