Observation Free Verse Poem

     This assignment was to sharpen our observation skills. So we were set loose to wander around campus for ten minutes and then write a couple paragraphs describing what we noticed. Then we were to turn those paragraphs in a more poetic rendering.

Tuesday morn in freezing January,

I don’t mean to be contrary,

it’s just…everywhere you look, you see cement,

and even the birds overhead are spent.

I don’t hate winter, it’s just natural weather

that happens every year, so you just wear that old leather

jacket all the time, then conserve body heat

as much as possible.

That’s probably why everyone else is staying indoors,

looking out from window-warmth near the printer;

not like those isolated and independent souls

trudging along to destinations in the cold.

Do the dead leaves get lonesome?

And if so, how could you tell?

From somewhere distant a motor hums,

Taking its occupants to the post office or Taco Bell.