Writing from a Distance

It's easier for me to write poetry set in Hawaii when I'm there rather than away. However, I do better with prose when I'm writing on the mainland. This may be because I'm writing from long term memory with prose and short term with poetry. I'm posting a poem I wrote last year while on the beach at Black Point.

Black Point, Oahu

I sedate
in the coconut breeze,

ponder the hum
of runaway ocean.

Men test the shallows
with spears—they

stab at shadows
then poke and prod holes

beneath the surface.
The men are

stick figures, bending.
The sea is a canvas of tortures.

The beach is missing its
people. Mansions at Black Point

pretend to be human.
They crowd the soft bay,

this skinny shore.
Waves slap the sand,

repeating yesterday
and the day before.

The water fills
with pleasure boats.

A sharp white sail
severs water from sky.

Comments

It's easier for me to write poetry set in Hawaii when I'm there rather than away.

For some songwriters, seems to have been the other way around, especially Andy Cummings with his "Waikiki".

I spent a two semesters in New York City 10 years ago, and pretty much everything I write is set there. I've tried to set parts of stories in Hawai´i, but for the kind of writing I usually do -- i.e. crime fiction -- it doesn't really ring very true to me.

Even though I've lived in Austin for the last five years and even though the city has a lot of stuff I can use in fiction, I can't. But I bet when I move from here (whenever that may be), I'll write a whole bunch of stuff set in late-90s Austin.

What? No murder backstage at Austin City Limits? Grins...

Already written, and not by me. ;) And not using Austin City Limits specifically, though the context is there. Wish I remembered who the hell wrote it ...

I believe the need to write about a place you've left behind is inspired by a longing, a deep love for the land and perhaps a person left behind. Sometimes that person is simply a memory, magnified to Winesburgian proportions by a single moment.

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