Collective Poetry Writing-The Process Beforehand

There are times before writing poetry or a poem, that I collectively take notes, either through sketches or brief paragraph descriptions, then write out whatever it is that I am writing about. Rarely do I type them out on a pc, as most of them are hand-written & then filed away in unmarked evelopes or folders & put into either a filing cabinet or someone else inside my apartment.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I actually found an old set of typewritten notes on my old IBM Aptiva hard-drive and decided to bring them out to show those who might know or understand these processes of writing poetry a bit better, to be more specific, mine in particular.

As it is that I am a trained journalist, most of these notes look, read & feel more journalistic. I'd have to say that my own journalistic skills came into play into my own short stories & poetry into the late 1990s, after I had closed the door on one careeer and moved into the phase of another.

Lately, that thinking has changed. I am moving closer & coming full circle again. my journalism skills intact and I'm feeling much better about choices being made overall.

Here now are a set of rough-sketch notes from the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster of Saturday, February 1, 2003, with a completed poem to follow...


Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster Notes/Saturday, February 1, 2003


A spark coming out of it and then we heard a boom

A fire in the sky southeast of Richardson

It scared my herd of cattle and sent them stampeding into the pasture and beyond

I saw four lights and then the earth roared in laughter

An apartment fire in Plano, Texas, apparently caused by drifting debris from the shuttle

Space shuttle has blown up in re-entry in earth over in Texas on its way to Florida, 9:17am eastern time and broken up into bits and pieces. Included first Israeli, too much emphasis on this, there were 7 human beings, including, one African American and one Indian woman and and four Caucasians.

East Texas space shuttle smack down kaboom high-speed

No terrorist attacks possible

2nd in seventeen years all that’s philosophical until we find out what happened we will not launch another shuttle

all 7 astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia have been killed, it had been flying at 12,500 miles per hour at 200,000 feet altitude (38 Miles High) all communications have been secure, broke up over the Dallas-fort worth area.

Search and rescue teams have been alerted and dispatched, looking for debris

Clear blue skies painted in steam smoking wreckage in fields

Sonic booms what is NASA waiting on? Space shuttle contingency drones on

The president has been briefed and will be returning to the white house from Camp David and will be returning via motorcade as it is too foggy to fly

Texas Louisiana border they found an arm and a hand and other debris

NASA has lowered its flags at both the facilities in Houston & Orlando

38 Miles High

I dreamed this morning of you
Your smile as warm as the summer sun
I saw your eyes shine and then shut as if to tell me you loved me so
And then the earth sneezed, clear blue skies painted in arced in vapor and steam
A Texas farmer said his cattle were frightened by a sonic boom
Smoking wreckage and flesh flambé’ in lone star fields
Sirens and reporters everywhere
A fairy tale come crashing down
And then I knew for sure you weren’t coming home