When the Road Bends, Take 2

Ribbons or ribbon? That's a question I asked myself as I looked over my post, When the Road Bends. Considering "does the road. It's asphalt ribbons", I changed the word to ribbon, because a road is singular and so it should be a ribbon. But then I think about it.

I tutor and I tell students all the time that on tests unless you know something is wrong stay with your initial instinctual choice. This doesn't mean that your instincts are correct, but you're more likely to change something that is right to something wrong than the reverse. So perhaps?

And I really should know better. Writing poems in the past, I've learned that the brain sometimes does get the wording perfect the first time. It's just that I don't fully understand what I'm writing. It's that misunderstanding which drives change, often an incorrect change. Now I have to consider what did I mean when I wrote the post.

Not far from my residence, the road curves over a hill. Crossing the top, you can see to the east the city of Nashville stretch before you. When the weather is sunny and pollution levels low, the scene is brilliantly beautiful. For a while now, I've been wanting to capture that view. So last Sunday, I walked to a vantage point not far from the crest of the road and took pictures of downtown. Afterwards, I examined the images, and quite honestly, I didn't get it!, that beauty I see on those sunny days when the air is clear.

Of course, I should know better; the road is intrinsically linked to the view. You drive up the hill, reach the peak, and there it is--Nashville! Of course, a photo won't ever capture that view, that moment. But I don't think I can ascribe to the moment "ineffable". If it is, don't say or do anything. You're wasting your time. Though, artists aren't wasting their time, because we're not after the scene, that moment, the one which is the focus of our attention, but another moment, one that is with us always.

So I changed the "ribbon" back to "ribbons" and a meaning returns.