Many people who create face the blank page, the empty screen, the white canvas, the paused record button. There may be trepidation at the start. Or the excitement of finally beginning. Or the confusion of where this may go.

The Art Store is a place where I often go to buy my art supplies. Sometimes I go just to replenish materials. But I often walk the aisles and imagine what could come of that color of paint, or that special piece of paper, or that piece of charcoal. The moment comes with hand poised over the empty space, the brain whirring, an inhale – and then a mark is made.

I think that for many children, their first experience of ordering food by themselves is ordering ice cream at the window of an ice cream shop. It is a feeling of power and control that they don’t experience very often in their lives.

The poem I wrote tries to capture the energy of that experience of making a choice of their own, to feel the thrill of having their desires met, to get overwhelmed by the giddiness of having someone follow their instructions. The recollection of that event exists as a memory that is very much like a remembered dream.

Our attention is constantly diverted and directed towards tasks and activities dictated by our society. I think it is too easy for us to lose sight of our surroundings.

And what wonderous surroundings are available to us in Central New York, there is a continuous mix of the natural world and the human creation. I enjoy the experience of all of it.

I was thinking about the connection, or lack of connection we have with these two spheres when I was writing this haiku.

We do our best to take advantage of the wealth of enjoyable opportunities available to us in Central New York. But sometimes, the weather has plans of its own. And still, we try.

I wrote this following a particularly abrupt weather event at an outdoor concert last summer. Instead of dwelling on the disappointment, I decided to try to express the event in a haiku.