More and More Days

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Today's guest post is by longtime NO RULES favorite Darrelyn Saloom. Follow
her on Twitter, or read
her previous guest posts.






I have never met Cynthia Newberry Martin (pictured
above), but it seems like I've always known her from perusing her blog she describes
as "a net for catching days." I've rarely missed a post since I first read Catching
Days and almost always leave a comment. But there have been times I sat in stunned
silence and did not respond.




On February 21, 2011, Cynthia posted "Obsessions" and
I've been unable to shake off her words since that day. In a short, simple post she
depicted many of her obsessions:

Pine trees that are all wiry and taller than the
other trees so they stick out, different textures coming together, abandoned things
and places, stairs and thresholds, rainy days and fog, sunrises and sunsets, doors
and windows, trains and tracks, lines of laundry, row houses, fall leaves, a full
moon, the ocean …

She followed with photographs to match her words and asked, "What's on
your list?" Awestruck, I could only stare at the pictures. But her words tracked me
from winter into spring and then summer and coaxed me to pay close attention to numerous
obsessions of my own:



Southern live oaks with thick biceps and elbows, weathered tin roofs atop century-old
houses and barns, horse stalls and walking wheels, back roads and antique malls, small-town
squares with a courthouse and bookstore, sidewalks and trails, soaring hawks, still
owls, an elusive chicken in my yard, Louisiana sunsets …




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Cynthia illustrated a blog post need not be long to be potent. Like a riveting poem,
story, or essay, it must portray its subject from another perspective, leave us changed,
educated, inspired—amazed. Always written with care and revised as if the editor of
your favorite literary journal may read it.




I cheered when Catching Days' author became Review Editor at Contrary and
co-editor of Hunger Mountain's new section,
"The Writing Life." As she continues to grow as a writer on a trek towards an MFA
at Vermont College of Fine Arts, I look
forward to tagging along on her journey as she fills her net, and I fill mine, with
more and more days.




Pictured above: Antiques in Sunset, Louisiana

Pictured below: Louisiana sunset

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Want to read more from Darrelyn? Check
out her most recent article for Boxing.com, on equal pay for female boxers.


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