The page above shows the current state of the first direction¹ for “Mist from the Mountains”.² In the top half, you see rows of words and lines that attempt to generate ideas for the theme (for example, how to describe the fog), resulting in a shapeless nebula of possibilities. From these, I extracted the rough stanza variations you see in the bottom half where the familiar shape of a poem slowly emerges. This direction will have one quatrain which I shall eventually come to after many more pages like this one.

As always, highlighted black text are those lines I am actively developing and grey text are notes (for example, a reminder as to why I chose this word over that one, or what shortcomings there may be in this line or that one); a forward slash separates variations of the same stanza and coloured letters help me keep track of words (namely their sounds³, literary alliteration, visual alliteration⁴, and frequency of use⁵). All this is of little interest I am sure but such is my numbingly meticulous nature!

1. As noted here on 5 September 2019.
2. There is, of course, a preceding page with the initial draft that spawned the three directions, as well as two subsequent pages with variations I have already written for directions two and three.
3. “And everywhere that Mary went…”
4. Words similar in shape and letters (I made this one up, I fear): The peasant plucked a pheasant.
5. For example, I make a significant word red the moment it appears more than once lest unwittingly I repeat it too often—it is easy to lose track of the obvious even in so short a poem when one is rapt in the writing process.