Let's Talk About Lost Treasure!

I don't want to talk about poetry today...okay, that's a lie. I'll be more specific. I don't want to talk about a poem today. What I'd like to talk about are things that inspire poetry. For me, I mostly get inspired when I'm outside walking. It doesn't matter if it's a nature hike or a stroll through town. Something about walking, thinking, and observing my surroundings at the same time gets me writing lines in my head. But other things inspire me, too, and sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest places.

Yesterday, I bought an old library book from a used bookstore. The book is called Sinkings, Salvages, and Shipwrecks (American Heritage Press, 1970) by Robert F. Burgess. The cover is fabulous, like looking through a submarine porthole and seeing a couple of your mates floating over gold coins in their diving suits. The back cover has a photograph of a partially sunken ship. Chapter One is titled "The Archeology of Shipwrecks" and begins "It was a gay, festive crowd that gathered on the quay before the royal palace in Stockholm on an August Sunday in 1628" (9).

These things may not affect you, but I'm hooked. I've been thrown into another world. I can smell the salty sea air, the cool breeze prickling my arms and tossing my hair around, sticking it to my face. I feel exuberant and excited. I'm craving an adventure, a voyage. Seriously, a book cover and an opening sentence did this to me. The characters are coming alive; I'm envisioning the sailors, the guy who commissioned the venture, the lady he brings with him. They probably die a horrible death at sea. That's sad, but then one day a team of diver's discovers the wreckage. It's all so magical and morbid and eerie and cool. Who wouldn't want to write a series of poems about this?

It's something I'm considering at the moment. Maybe I'll write them, or maybe something more important will come along, and I'll write about that. Who cares? As long as you're inspired, you have a universe of poetry waiting to be written. The next time you get excited about something, write about it. See where it takes you. For now, I'll be taking a journey into the deepest, darkest depths of Poseidon's lair, expecting my pen to follow.