Robert Morgan advises us to “celebrate the richness and wisdom of his work,” calling his voice “one of our most beloved.” Ron Rash says that Marion’s poems “are confident enough to speak quietly to us, even gently.” Marion says of his own motivations for writing that they “have remained relatively constant over the years—that is, to capture vividly and explore the world as I see it, primarily the natural and rural world, its places, inhabitants and their ways of being, the twang and flavor of their speech. I am motivated to enter into the writing of a poem by the need to discover whatever there is in that feeling that’s so tantalizing, but at the moment unknown.”
For this writing prompt, here are a few things to jot down before you begin:
· Make a list of images you remember, particular moments that have stayed with you for years,
maybe even decades. Write down at least ten.
· Then choose one of these images. Make a few notes about context of the image: time of
day, weather, objects nearby, historical events, anything that occurs to you as part of the
scene. In short, jot down the smaller details that, upon looking closer, are present in
your memory.
· Now read Jeff Daniel Marion’s “Watercolor of an East Tennessee Farm” from his first
collection, Out in the Country, Back Home:
Watercolor of an East Tennessee Farm
Always there is a backporch
its screen door ajar
framing an old woman who is
pitching water outside,
the water arching its back
like the cat, ready to rub
her legs.
Write your own version of a “watercolor,” or what artists call a “still life.” Simply paint a picture of a situation, scene, or image. Let the details inherently there in your memory do the work. Produce a still life that your reader can not only visualize but also can experience. The poem could be short or long, depending on how much you choose to emphasize.