My poem started with this image. An old tree. Limbs tangled. Gnarled. Braided. I liked the idea of braided bones ... twigs and branches and limbs of a tree that look like braided bones.

It gives a haunting, creepy feel. Which is perfect if you're writing a poem that involves Halloween, night, a storm, or even autumn.

But as I look again at what I just wrote, I see that I meant to start out with a braid of crooked bones. It changed, as I was free thinking, to simply braided bones. This image might be the title of my poem, or might be a line of the bone.

I think I'll use it in the poem on the next page: