Slice of Life Moonstream

Writing Inspiration

On my way to work I drive a rural highway with scenes of sagebrush, the Columbia River, the Okanogan forest, and Moses Mountain. It’s a lovely twenty minute drive, a perfect get ready or reflect, depending on if you’re going to or leaving from. Many of my favorite photos are from this drive– the clouds, the trees, the mist, the mountain, the sunflowers, the deer– it’s simply a lovely place to live.

The drive provides the backdrop and setting for many of the scenes in my many NaNoWriMo novels. No matter where a person lives, the places we spend our days can inspire our writing, and in this case provides the imaginary placement of an imaginary city and how getting there depends on your attitude and how you allow yourself to be drawn into a hidden moonstream world.

What brought me to this poem was a prompt from my daily art project at The Daily Create: #ds106 @ds106dc   #tdc3718 Create a City– today we created a city and added an origin story to it using the Medieval Fantasy City Map generator. The city generated for me is Moonstream, and I colored it a bit and wrote a poem for today’s Slice of Life, because this has inspired me for a start of a new novel, Moonstream for next November’s NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. [ Young Writers version here]

The Map

The name reminded me of the misty, foggy drives on my way to work, and the lovely moon views. I took these two images– a repeated Moses Mountain and the moon over the Columbia River, reversed and superimposed over the Moses Mountain images — and wondered just how one would get to a misty city through the moonbeams. And that began my first insights into the spark of an idea for my next novel.

Today’s poem explains the journey’s beginning– the mist, the calm and generous attitude, the song to hear, letting go to nature of one’s worries, and the spark of fairy dust to lead you to the trail to Moonstream. And each little part of this poetic song includes the rhyme of a fairy tale.

Writing Process

No matter where a person lives, the places we spend our days can inspire our writing, and in this case provides the imaginary placement of an imaginary city and how getting there depends on your attitude and how you allow yourself to be drawn into a hidden moonstream world. The only way to get to this city is through the magic of wee folk and the twilight moon beams streaming through the valley mist.

To get to this idea, I imagined myself walking on the path by the misty twilight, and know I want a good world, a peaceful one. That scene and wish led to the first two verses. Then, if you’re willing to join a new world, listen for it. Third verse. Leave the old world behind– Fourth verse. Give yourself to the new world– last verse.

Led through with rhyme: vale, dale, nightingale, quail, trail.

And, once you find the place and enter, your journey in fairy land begins. Will there be a dragon? An evil troll? A friend? And how will the moonlight of moonstream help guide you to help?

Poetry

The Moment to Moonstream

On your journey
As twilight settles
And a mist blankets
The vale…

Harbor no evil
Cast no spell
Wish only joy
In hill and dale…

Sense the calm
Hear the night song
Of a roosting robin
Or the nightingale…

Allow the night
To ease your pain
Flowing away
On a bobbing quail…

A spark, a moment
as moonlight streams
Fairy flocks pull you
Into Moonstream’s trail.

Sheri Edwards
031822 077.365.22
Poetry/Photography

Your Turn

Look around you. Perhaps imagine yourself following a wish or dream. Create a character who could wind his or her way through your setting to reach that dream. Start with a particular spot, and let that character step into it. Write a poem or scene of the place and the action and you’ve got the beginning of your own poem, short story, or novel.

2 Comments

on “Slice of Life Moonstream
2 Comments on “Slice of Life Moonstream
    • I clicked that “generate new map” button many times to find an interesting name with trees and water and “soft” names on the map. And, yes, “Moonstream” must have magic! Thanks for stopping by…

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