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Chapel Hill, inspiration, north carolina writers, poetry, Saxapahaw, writing, writing process, writing prompts
2nd Annual Fall Pen & Paddle in Saxapahaw, NC
This time last week I was floating on the Haw River with a few other writers for my 2nd Annual Fall Pen & Paddle. Between last year’s paddle, the earlier kayak trip this spring, and last weekend, every trip has had idyllic temperate weather. While I’ve been surprised at our luck with the weather, the natural inspiration on each paddle has surprised me each time too.
On this trip, the inspiration started on my drive to the launch site. I saw a baby cow on the streetside of a fenced pasture, facing his herd on the other side. A few minutes later, I saw what looked like a very kind older man handcuffed between his old SUV and a state trooper’s flashing patrol car.
These situations posed many questions that were on my mind when we pushed offshore. The latter inspired a poem called “Whiskey Sunrise” where I explored a possible intoxication as the reason why the old man was pulled over on a Saturday morning. The poem starts:
Clouded whiskey sunrise
pushing through the sky
like a dandelion puff…
During another one of the writing sessions, I had drifted toward shore and became distracted by a baby turtle walking underwater on the riverbed and munching on its breakfast. I wrote some short verse about its “riverside mud buffet.”
One of the writers drifting during a writing session.
Around this time in the shallows by the shore, I was mesmerized by a school of guppies. This triggered a memory from my childhood that I immediately wrote down. When I was small–think pre-K–my dad found me in the backyard sprinkling fish food into a bucket. We had a few aquariums in the house, and a small pond my dad made out back, so there was always fish food around. When my dad asked me what I was doing, I told him I was “feeding the guppies.” He came over to look in the bucket, and I was feeding mosquito larva that had hatched in the standing water. 
If you’re interested in exploring the Haw, the fantastic team of Haw River Canoe & Kayak has been the outfitter for these paddles. They provide shuttle service, stand-up paddleboard classes (and SUP yoga!), partner with breweries/wineries for kayak tours, and have an island with a camping site you can paddle to!
The next day, I attended a seed-themed poetry reading at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. The NCBG has a Saving Our Seeds Exhibition that runs through December 22. The poetry reading was one of the events planned this fall to foster awareness and appreciation of seed conservation.
A handful of local poets read their nature-inspired poetry, some using seeds not only as metaphors for growth or for being rooted in place – but also migration. Each poet brought a unique perspective and provoking language that has made me look at plant life in new ways.
Jay Bryan introducing the readers.
One of the poets, Joanie McLean, passed around a bowl of seeds during her reading and encouraged everyone to pick one. This small act made a literally tangible connection to the subject of seeds.
Around this time last year I shared how my writing routines change with the seasons. That shift has happened once again, and this time nature seems to be at the forefront – both on land and water.
Getting away from our screens and immersing ourselves in places where our senses our activated…that unleashes primal creativity and bone-deep story intuition. What great opportunities.
It’s all about that natural reconnection! Helps in development of story ideas and describing settings. I’ve been making efforts to ‘go dark’ and minimize screen time. I’m up to 3.5 dark days per week. It’s taken me a year for this progress. Aiming for 4 dark days by Thanksgiving. I’ve been reallocating that time to meaningful connections: creative, personal and natural.
That is powerful! I am doing more reading of print at night, which is a start (still love my Kindle), but time with pages and slow reading is a new thing for me (yet old school, the way I used to be!). I really admire this effort to get back to true self. Nancy Peacock has a great post on her site about why she quit social media that is very interesting. I am trying to find a way to balance my connections in these spaces with just being but not making a whole lot of progress. http://nancypeacockbooks.com/wp/
Amen to all these comments. Thanks for sharing!
What an inspiration to feed a writer’s soul!
I would love to do this in my area, but the East River is a bit less idyllic. 🙂
Field trip! Field trip! 🙂 Isn’t there a spot at one of the city’s piers with free kayaking? I can check with my sister if you haven’t heard of it.
Yes, you’re right about that! A colleague told me she’d tried it and had a lot of fun. She had to kayak in a limited area so as not to go into the shipping lanes on the Hudson. 😉