Sherwood Salutation

Once upon a time, many books ago, I read some extremely helpful advice about what to do when you have writer's block. I believe the suggestion came from Mr. S. (otherwise known as Daniel Schwabauer of OYAN fame) When the creative part of your brain feels like a dried-up pea, take in some other artwork and take a break from putting out artwork. Can't figure out where your plot is going? Read someone else's book. Watch a movie. Listen to music, or look at paintings. I've always found it extremely helpful. Be aware that this can turn into procrastination if you're not careful, but you have to get your creativity from somewhere. Art is one of the many things that fuels imagination. Last semester, my creative writing professor sent us on a field trip to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. Our assignment was to choose two paintings, and write a poem about each of them. I found enough inspiration that day to fill a lifetime of stories. As I was wandering through the confusing conglomeration of rooms and hallways, I came across a massive painting by one of my favorite artists, N.C. Wyeth. Apparently, it was one of the paintings he did as illustrations for Robin Hood. I scoured the internet, but unfortunately I couldn't find a digital copy of it to share with you, but this painting, also by Wyeth, will give you some idea of what it was like:

It was startlingly bright and vivid, so big that it seemed more like a doorway into Robin Hood's world than a painting. I was alone, and a little lonely, so the sudden appearance of Robin Hood in that quiet world of stiff Renaissance nobles and tortured modern shapes felt like the appearance of a long-lost friend. I adored the Robin Hood stories as a child, and still love them to this day.
I tried to capture a little of the joy of the painting and my own joy in the poem:

Sherwood Salutation

by Olivia Taylor

They told me you were dead--

 My old friend Robin Hood

When I came to the end of the story

They told me you were dead.

But the news-- like everything else about you--

Must be greatly exaggerated, for

I ran into you yesterday

Not quite as I remembered, but it was

You all the same.

Launching sporting arrows

Into the warm rich world of summer afternoon sun

That divine jewel-bright workmanship of light

Lending a bit of heaven’s color to

Our Sherwood:

Verdant greenwood splashed with

Cerulean blue under twisting pillars of

Smooth rough towering oaks

You and the Merry Men

Take the forest as your style

In the green of leafy shadows,

Dull grey of ancient forbidden wood

Calmly glowing

 Brown of

A smile always in your eyes 

With laughter quick to follow.