Welcome to a weekly Wednesday photo poetry prompt. If you’d like to get this in your inbox each week, please subscribe to my blog. Join in the community by writing a small poem in the comments and encouraging other writers with your comments.
Today’s photo is one I took at my daughter’s house last weekend. I had returned her two children from a morning at the museum and was getting ready to leave when I saw the shoes posing. Perhaps my daughter had placed them there, but more likely it was Stella who, at the age of two, likes a certain order to things. Her mother was like that, sorting all the cans in the cabinet by size and color at a very young age. She gets that from her father, and her father gets it from his mother. I once took a personality test that labeled me “abstract random” and my husband as “concrete sequential.”
No matter what type of order your keep or don’t, this photo is sure to charm you into writing something. At Ethical ELA this week we wrote a Pile of Good Things poem. I think I could add “Three pairs of shoes all in a row” to my pile.
These shoes have seen
Margaret Simon, draft
the hills of North Carolina
and the backyards of Louisiana
but they are most happy
lined side by side on a bench
in the home where they belong.
Reflections on the Teche 
Great picture, Margaret! I must admit, I like an order to things. Your poem says so much about family and filled me with a sense of belonging. I chose to give the shoes just one owner.
I have a different pair of shoes
for different things I want to be,
for different ways I’m feeling—
each day a different me!
I love “Each day a new me!” and that slip in of rhyme.
I agree with Margaret… each day a different me is perfect!
Delightful, Rose! Many ways to express our different moods and activities.
Margaret: Your test results made me laugh. Probably I’m in a similar marriage. Thanks for this photo. Love it and your poem, side by side…
Margaret, I love the photo and your poem, especially the last line “where they belong.”
Girl’s pink-soled sneakers
Sandwiched between
Woman’s running shoes,
Man’s sturdy boots,
Makes a family.
Jane Heitman Healy, draft
Love this! A family of shoes!
Jane, I love how you drew a picture of a family.
This photo reminds me, I have a similar one, my grand’s shoes around my mother’s hope chest. I must find it…
How it fills
my heart
these shoes
gathering hours
forging bonds
stockpiling memories
whispering comfort
shuffling…
home
draft – Karen Eastlund
Mmm, yes, the bonds, memories, and shuffle to Home…fits just right.
Sweet, Karen, and great imagery
What a sweet picture! I love that last line and its double meaning.
Counting joys
two by two.
Can you hear them whisper,
“Mamere, we love you?”
My heart! Thanks.
Aww, Leigh Anne, that’s surely what they are saying!
Love every bit of this! I am definitely abstract random and my husband is definitely concrete sequential.