Traveling in the Wilderness

Mid the woods,
snowdusk shadows are
spare–lovely
but cold, dark,
clinging like shaded brume and
wandering silent and deep.

Drawn here but
not belonging, I
do not have
promises
of morning or an end to
this vigil I keep

of if and
beyond—all those miles
now lost to
me.  I go
in circles of before–I
beg the night for sleep.

The Kick-About prompt this week was the last 4 lines of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. I was struggling with my poem, a shovel poem (using the words of Frost’s lines as the last words in the lines of my poem) in the shadorma form, when Sarah at dVerse posted her prompt suggesting titles taken from “Surfacing” by Kathleen Jamie. The idea of traveling in the wilderness helped me find a focus.

I had already spent a long time fooling around with the art. The diorama I planned didn’t work out as I expected, but I liked the background paintings I did more than I thought I would.

Done on very wet rice paper, with black ink and silver and pearl metallic watercolor, they had much more of the feeling of Frost’s words than I expected. The diorama on the other hand, failed to match my vision, and I took 50 photos to come up with just a few that I liked.

Still I learned from the experience, including how natural light is much more blue than that from my drawing table lamp which has a yellow cast.

And I got a surprise in the monoprint that emerged from under one of the wet rice paper paintings which also seemed to capture well the feeling of my poem.

32 thoughts on “Traveling in the Wilderness”

  2. I love the Frost poem and how you’ve woven it in here, Kerfe! I really struggle with these, but you’ve created a beautiful golden shovel poem and your artwork is just fantastic. I feel as though I’m in the poem when I look at it!

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  13. You did a lot with muted tones and shadows. Very cool on all pieces showing a good range of effects. I’ve noticed how natural light has a much different effect on images also. Some collages in sunlight where grass and other shadows fall on it looks cool also.

    I love your Frost shovel poem as well!

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  15. I’ve never tried to write a golden shovel, though I do admire them. Yours is in keeping with the theme of the Frost stanza and the title prompt, which is great. While taking it in a direction that is lost in the darkness with no promise of morning light, you’ve added even more depth to that theme.

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