The Opposite of Indifference.
I have been off this week and joyfully participating in two writing challenges. I truly wish I could do this every day. Writing to prompts makes my creative juices flow. If I write a poem each day, I feel a certain satisfaction that I’ve accomplished something.
This week the Poetry Sisters challenge was to write an ekphrastic poem, which is a poem written to art. Their theme this year is transformation. In the February Project with Laura Shovan, Molly Hogan used photographs of abandoned buildings to prompt us to think about their story. I went to a mysterious place with this image.
I’ve always enjoyed writing about a mystery. In high school, I had a short story published in the school’s literary journal about a portrait in an abandoned house that ended with a question, a mystery. Many in the Facebook group wanted to know more. Mystery is like that. We want to know. I recently heard on a podcast “surrender to the mystery.” I believe that we don’t know all the answers, and we are not supposed to. So let this poem sit with you in all its unknown.
Shattered
She left the curtains
Margaret Simon, draft
hanging,
the window open,
the cat in the yard.
She left when the air
was warm and damp
fearing her shame
would shatter her dream.
Reflections on the Teche 
I love the mystery of this one, Margaret. Your use of the word “left” in different ways was masterful, turning the poem and recalibrating the reader’s understanding of it.
Ooh! I missed this one in the challenge! The mystery is PERFECT!!
I like the mystery of this, too, Margaret. I think there’s a whole story here!
You left just the right amount unknown, Margaret. Well done! (bookmarking this post to sit with it again)
Now I want to read your high school mystery story!
I have no idea if I still have it. So long ago! Thanks for reading.
Very mysterious and nicely done, Margaret.
I love the photo and how you expertly drew us into the mystery of your poem with it. Thank you! It really leaves me wondering why she left – the way she did!
Ohhh, that house is beautiful, Margaret, even in dire need of a bit of sanding and some paint and refitting… and I DEARLY want to know if she merely left the curtains to protect the dream or left the windows open to chase it… SO many ways this could go!
I love Molly’s intriguing photo and I know why your drawn to it. Love the mystery in this poem. Does she come back to the cat? Your last tree lines are full of letter /m/consonance and I love the near rhyme in damp and shame, or is that assonance? I love the two ending lines! It has me thinking: what is her dream, what shame… I also love the “shatter” in the last line goes back to the title, Shattered. Great job!
Margaret, you left the reader with a certain amount of wonder. What for? Why? The mystery is unsolved. Your poem is intriguing. A great title starts the mystery.
I loved it then, & now, too, Margaret. You have beautifully left us with questions, caring for that mysterious woman, somewhere!
oooooooh, surrender to the mystery. What a great strike line. I too feel accomplished when I can write to a prompt and feel good about the result. It’s so satisfying. This poem makes me want to know what is the shame she fears?
Eight short lines, and I am fully invested in this character, in her circumstances. That is some good writing!
It is a lovely mystery in your poem.
Margaret, what a wonderful story you have told. It is sad to imagine what shame has shattered her dream. You have written a very effective mystery.
Yes, mystery leaves us wanting more! Seeing the image is like eavesdropping on a conversation: you were not meant to know the backstory, so you create one instead! Enjoy your week off!