Friday, October 9, 2009

A Very Late Poetry Response: "Again"


It's been a very busy week with Class Day and my online MLA research class working on their outlines, plus my mom's and Keith's birthdays, so I haven't has much time to respond to Carry On Tuesday's prompt. I did write one -- I started it Tuesday, wrote a second draft Wednesday, but am just getting around to posting it today.

Writing poetry from prompts stretches me into writing about topics I never would have otherwise. I let the quotation(s) soak into me, waiting for an image to come. With this prompt, I started with the image of a woman shaking her head "no" and followed the image from there. Obviously this topic has NOTHING to do with my life -- it's just an imagined couple. When I watch them interact in my head, she is pale and dark-haired, a woman of quiet beauty and dignity, and he is blond and devastatingly handsome, with a cleft chin and piercing green eyes. Both are in their late thirties. So let me know what you think:

Carry on Tuesday Prompt #21: This week our prompt is the opening few words from Samuel Beckets' book The Unnameable: "Where now? Who now? When now?" Use all or part of it within your poem or prose.

Again.

Slowly
she shook her head,
negating the swirling images --
the insistently circling questions:
Who now?
When now?
Where now?
Now.
That word revealed all:
Now.
Again.
Still shaking her sickened head --
Not again.
He had promised.
The last time he had dried
her tears so tenderly --
embraced her so consolingly --
his soothing voice promising
"Never again"
over and over
in an imploring litany.
She dared not imagine
who this one was --
what she looked like --
where they had met --
how often?
for how long?
With a groan she pushed aside
desperate speculations,
and raised her face to his,
betrayal and accusation
brimming in her eyes --
hopeful apology in his:
Again.

1 comment:

Anne said...

Excellent! I can see it and I can feel her pain.

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