Prompt: Meander

An ongoing series of earth-related prompts as part of an Imunuri experiment to dwell repeatedly on a theme and its riffs, and/or the possible poetry challenge, bit by bit, of producing an epic or body of poems...

From Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape (2006), edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, From the Entry "Meander" by William deBuys:

Dr. Miller, UofO, "Owens River, CA. Note the different generations of old meanders."

"If by virtue of velocity or volume a river has more energy than it needs to accomplish its work, it will spend that extra energy to reshape its course...a river will extend its channel laterally by carving a series of curves or meanders..."

Lidar Image of Willamette River Meanders Over Time

Our next epic-earth inspiration is the meander. How does flow curve the extra energy of creativity, carving into river bends and wide channels in you? What does it sounds like, feel like, when you wander? And/or, where have you gone direct and created an oxbow lake where before your inner river carved slow winding curves?

Somatic opp: flex and swivel, meander the watercourse of your body into undulant flow. Write from or while gyrating side to side.

Triple bonus score if you can go to the banks of a meander to write. More simply, sparked by a loping roam.

Another triple bonus score if you geek out and learn something geologic/geographically interesting about meanders and weave what you've learned into the journey of your poem. 

Riff: meander, wander, ramble, nomad, ambagious, wind, carve, roam

Keywords: meander, epic-earth, poem, <your moniker>

Image credits: Owens River Image: Marli Bryant Miller's U of Oregon page on the meander 2. Detail of the Willamette River from a lidar data image, showing the Luckiamute River (left) and the Santiam River (right) joining it. (Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries)- Article