The two primary factors limiting my writing production are: one, a lack of time and energy to edit and two, a lack of internet service at camp sites (and on trail). Regarding the first, rough drafts are fun to write; I often dictate them from the trail. No one (high school English teachers in particular I assume) cares to read an unedited first draft though. I must take time to rework the draft, and this time is harder to find given that, in this phase of the trip, hiking more miles each day means fewer hours not moving for stretching, editing, and sleeping. Lack of Internet service is a factor recently, hence the stack of backlogged writings I posted. The highest mountains of Virginia – Mount Rogers Recreation Area and Grayson Highlands – had the least service thus far. I enjoyed this region and its 75 trail miles, including for its sparse Internet.
The Mount Rogers region pushed my mind in a poetic direction, so I present one poem for each day in these quiet highlands of southern Virginia.
The first poem is the simplest, so I ease into this project with it. It concerns the dichotomies apparent in the natural world. Among these are the feeling of spring in the warmth of sun and length of day juxtaposed with bare wintry trees. Or a desire to spend long moments enjoying a particular place or person on the trail juxtaposed with a need to continue making miles. The poem represents these conflicts in its examples.
