A few years ago I was captivated by Stephen Fry’s Book The Ode Less Travelled, Unlocking the Poet Within. His gently self-deprecating admission “I write poetry” gave me permission to explore something I’ve loved but not dared to take seriously. At his wry suggestion, I dedicated a journal and started doing the exercises he presents, such as: “Write five pairs of blank iambic pentameter. . . To make it easier I will give you a specific subject for all five pairs. 1. Precisely what you hear and see outside your window; 2. Precisely what you’d like to eat, right this minute. . . .”
I found I greatly enjoyed working with meter, rhyme, and meaning. Later I came to love poetry with partial rhyme and subtle meter – where the images might take me first but then I would notice how the sounds rocked me. So at the end of November, at a lightening of other duties, I took it upon myself to write a sonnet a day – not to be profound but just to hone my craft. Today I share one in response to my friend Kathleen Noble’s post on loneliness:
Loneliness
How quickly all the flurry settles down
The waves recede, the foam evaporates
In sudden quiet, here I am alone
No partner, cohort, no collective state
It is a lie, of course, this isolation
My family’s here, although in different rooms
They care for me and hold me in relation
I haven’t really wandered off in gloom
And though I feel I’ve drawn the circle small
So few who know me, few who care I’m here
Another view would show me one with all
Would make my contribution strong and clear
It’s just an artifact of how I’m seeing
Succumbing to the void, or brightly being.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 3, 2011
Wendy,
I read this a second time aloud just to delight in the sound of your words! I am so honored to have inspired a poem! I will print it out on some nice paper and keep it. Thank you!
This is also fine.
I like “Succumbing to the void, or brightly being.” When I'm 'faced' with loneliness this is often the choice I see.
With gratitude for your challenge. [It reminds me of Julie in “Julia and Julie” and how her blog about cooking each recipe of Julia Childs's gathered such a following.
This, too, could happen!
Sharon