A Writer’s Inspiration

A few days ago, one of the questions on a writers’ Facebook page was, What do you do to get unstuck from a writer’s block? My answer was I simply wrote. Darcy and Flora took over, I recorded their conversation and activities and voila! I was unstuck. There’s something else that gets me in the mood to write: poetry. Poetry paints a  picture with only a few words and some poems point this writer’s mind into the realm of the Make Believe, the What If, the imaginary world that only I can create.

Among the books on my crowded bookshelves, are two sets of Childcraft. The set that has some of my favorite poems has a late copyright date of 1960 but the earliest is 1934. As you can imagine, the poems are old. I love them! I want to post here two of my favorites that really put me in the mood to write a cozy mystery! See what they do for you.

The Mist and All

I like the fall, The mist and all.

I like the night owl’s Lonely call

And wailing sound

Of wind around.

I like the gray November day,

And bare dead boughs That coldly sway

Against my pane.

I like the rain.

I like to sit And laugh at it–

And tend My cozy fire a bit.

I like the fall–The mist and all.

–Dixie Wilson

Some One

Someone came a-knocking

At my wee, small door.

Someone came a-knocking,

I’m sure–sure–sure.

I listened, I opened,

I looked to left and right,

But nought there was a-stirring

In the still, dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping in the wall,

Only from the forest

The screech-owl’s call,

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall,

So I know not who came knocking,

At all, at all, at all.

–Walter de la Mare

Don’t they give you a case of the delicious shivers?