DMC: "Resolute" by Linda Mitchell

RESOLUTE

A ballerina watches
a photographer
set up tripod and camera
near the window.
He hunts, she thinks.
Each move, every glance
measured light,
hushed selection
of prey.
The music stops
and Señora claps sharp.
Dancers line up
for portraits,
one by one against
the weather-beaten wall.
And now her,
the prize shot.
Obediently she steps
into position,
bringing her braids
forward, a deer
in a sun-dappled forest.
The ballerina, however,
escapes falling prey
to simmering clicks
of his camera.
No resigned smile,
no first position
or plié
no giving away
her dance inside.

© 2017 Linda Mitchell. All rights reserved.


Jeannine Atkins has challenged us to write a poem that uses personified feeling. For more details, click HERE. Jeannine offers the following guidance to those feeling stuck: 

"Maybe start with a character in motion and think of her main feeling. Then let her or him speak to Joy, Anxiety, Peaceful Nature, Curiosity, Grief, etc to set a dialog back and forth. Or here's a prompt: Happiness, where are you? — let Happiness answer."

Post your poem on our February 2017 padlet.  All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, February 24th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her latest novel-in-verse from Atheneum Books/Simon & Schuster: