Fujifilm X-T2, Landscape, Poetry
by Patrick Jennings

Finding Rainbows

Athabasca Falls, Athabasca River, Icefields Parkway, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

As falls the water
So fall I
Into the chasm

The inevitable course
Into the tumult I tumble
Fractured until no more than mist

There in the light discover
The true nature of I
Refracting all hues of possibility

Disassembled I
Finds the path
From broken to whole

Athabascan Rainbow
Athabasca Falls
Jasper National Park
Alberta, Canada

Taken during travels, 2017

NaPoWriMo ’24, day 30 of 30
YAY!
2020, the pandemic year, was the last time I completed this challenge. I wrote two poems a day that year. What else was I gonna do? I spent half that month in Covid quarantine, unable to leave the confines of my small apartment? 😉

Committing to and completing a daily post challenge reminded me of some valuable insights.

First, it’s important to write through the hardships that sometimes make writing difficult. Even if the words seem not right or not even very good, there’s wisdom there, so long as there’s an honest attempt to honour the words I am given.

Second, that little toss-off of a poem I wrote and published just to make the deadline at 11:45pm? Sometimes that’s the most honest and insightful I’d been for days.

Third, put the stuff out there. Even the stuff I’m not particularly fond of. I’m my own worst critic and, sometimes, it’s the simple words and the simplest insights that reach people the most powerfully.

In the first couple years of this blog, I was averaging a couple of posts per day and committed to posting at least one every day. I’m recommitting to that.