Friday, March 14, 2008

Poetry Stretch Results - March Inspired Image

This week's challenge was to write a poem to accompany this image.
This photograph of Artelia Bendolph was taken by Arthur Rothstein while working for the U.S. government to document resettlement housing projects during the 1930s. You can learn more about it and the others Rothstein took.

Here are the poems inspired by this photo.
Daisybug at Things that make me say... shares a poem entitled Inside Out.

Laura Purdie Salas began her poem as a haiku, but ended with a poem that was very different.

Kim from Hiraeth shares a poem entitled Questions.

Marianne Neilsen at Doing the Write Thing! shares a haiku.

Jan Fields at No Bunnies Here also shares a poem. Welcome, Jan!
Here is my offering.
Stronger Than it All

This place
of mud and wood
and thatch,
though cold and wet,
is warm with love
and fuels my dreams

The wind
slides through
the cracks
and seeps
into my bones

It fans the flames
that flicker
on candlesticks
casting dancing shadows
on the wall

Raindrops splash
from roof to floor
and drip
from log to log
collecting in pools
in the dirt and mud

There is little
that this place
keeps out
and even less
it will
keep in

It cannot
hold me--
will not
keep me
down

I will rise
and stretch beyond
the bonds
that hold me

You do not
want me
in your world,
but I will arrive
and live
to soar
above it all.

It's not too late if you still want to play. Write a poem inspired by this image and leave me a note so I can add your work to the list.

No comments:

Post a Comment