The Place I Go

When I was growing up, the ET was the place I went to be worry free and enjoy the nature of riding my bike.

I remember the Eastern trail vividly as the place I go

to be on the Eastern trail. The greenbelt of America.

making its path between the trees

sunlight sneaking through the branches

leading me to clarity. I lived in Maine

fifteen years. The state bird

is an indecisive mother nature. The state flower

is Fort Williams, which sounds quite vigorous

though it is merely cold and still as nature.

A North-easterner can use the word “nature,”

can sincerely use the word “sincere.”

In truth the Northeast is neither North nor East.

When I go back to the Eastern trail, I bike through the woods split by this trail.

Hills of landfills, so life

goes tree tree tree landfill, I wave at the hills,

which we're not getting along with

on account of the trash as I pass.

Then the Eastern trail goes tree tree tree

3 mile mark, goodbye greenbelt. You never forget

how to be on the Eastern trail when you're from Maine.

Author's Note

Please provide feedback!!!!!!! Work inspired by "A Primer" by Bob Hicok. Scaffold layout from "The Practice of Creative Writing" by Heather Sellers. Image extracted from www.mainetrailfinder.com. The bold words are my creations and most of the non-bold words are from Bob Hicok's original piece. Some non-bold words were change to make the piece flow better.

Reviews

[Lorna]

This is a very interesting idea - To glue your words inside someone else's work. It's also one I've never heard before. I like what you've done with it, but I'm curious to know how it helps you improve with your writing. I like new techniques and this is one that I've never seen used.
Besides that, I really enjoy reading poetry about nature because it's a subject that can be interpreted in many different ways. What you've done with Hicok's piece is very fitting and it sounds lovely in my head. Good job!

[Anh Nguyen]

Thank you for the feedback! I believe that by scaffolding a piece can help writers improve their writing because when I was trying to find the words that would fit into Hicok's piece, it made me pay closer attention to the little details of his work. It allowed me to see his execution of certain ideas of his writing.

[Lynden Mazur]

Good stuff. Very interesting concept for a poem. I did not understand it at first but once I understood how the poem was written, I thought it was a nice idea and well written. It reminds me of playing Adlibs. I am definitely going to try and write some poems using this format in the future.