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| "Waiting for delivery" by ~libby |
Letters
In a dream,
I write my younger self
messages from the ether
Where do I find the answers? she asked.
Please, can you show me the way?
while the letters accumulate
in cobwebbed corners
she hasn't the presence to find.
Unopened,
they await my arrival.
© 2018 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.
Write a letter to yourself in which you ask some questions that you don't have to answer.
(Your poem does not need to be in standard letter form.)
If you'd like to participate, post your poem on our September 2018 padlet. Other question poems featured this week were by Margaret Simon, Tabatha Yeatts, Janice Scully, and Cory Corrado.
All contributions will be included in a wrap-up presentation next Friday, September 28th, and one lucky participant (chosen randomly) will win a personalized copy of Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (Greenwillow Books, 2018).
A stunning poem...and so directly the challenge. Don't I wish I could find my elder self at a younger age....but only when I arrive. The brevity packs a punch but there is a softness too. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Linda. I wonder if I'll ever arrive!
DeleteLovely, M.!! I can just picture those cobwebbed corners.
ReplyDeleteI send messages back, well, as close as I can, by telling my kids stuff :-)
I try that too, T, but lately my kids don't tend to listen to my cobwebbed advice either.
DeleteBig questions from that upper stratosphere Michelle–hope they peek out from the many layered cob webs… Ah but "they await my arrival." Lots packed into this short strong poem.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michelle. It was a bit difficult to get my head around what was going on while writing it, but I guess the message came through eventually.
DeleteTrying again. I love the cobwebbed corners. What if we could read letters we wrote to our younger self. How poignant.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jone. Blog comments can definitely be ornery at times, but I appreciate you coming back for a second go.
DeleteWonderful, Michelle! Oh to have had that presence of mind when we were young...
ReplyDeleteOh to have that presence of mind now! Thank you for your help with my letter writing, Buffy.
DeleteI love the cobwebbed corners, too, but I also want to note that even cobwebbed corners can catch pesky mosquitoes. Which is apropos of nothing except that I saw a mosquito get grabbed out of the air by one of the bathroom's cobwebs! I believe I gave a cheer.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I'd probably give a cheer too. :D
DeleteLove the poem, Michelle. If only we knew then what we know now . . .
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jama. If only....
DeleteOoh, another challenge to try out. Thanks for stopping by the blog, Michelle and for sharing your poem today :)
ReplyDeleteHope your first experience hosting PF was a good one, Erin!
DeleteDefinitely worth the wait, Michelle! Beautifully crafted. I wonder if I would listen to my wiser self . . .
ReplyDeleteCory
Michelle, how would your younger self respond IF she did open and read the letters? I wonder . . . I am reflecting on my response to my own letters. Another great challenge.
DeleteLove the poem!
Cory
Interesting thought, Cory. Unfortunately I'm not sure my younger self would believe any advice my older self had to offer. But then again, who knows?
DeleteSuch a clever response to the challenge, Michelle. I love the idea of those cobwebbed corners., and the reminder that we can't know then what we know now.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sally. It seems one foot in front of the other is the only way to go!
DeleteUnopened,
ReplyDeletethey await my arrival.
Ah, yes. So true. Lovely, lovely little poem. Thank you.
I love those lines, Rosi! Michelle, well done!
DeleteThank you, Rosi and Rebekah. For a while I wasn't sure this poem would arrive, but thankfully it finally came around.
DeleteKnowing you, methinks your younger self, she was quite the knowing one.
ReplyDeleteAnd now your older self, she is quite the risking one.
I think the way you have shaped "Letters" is exquisite.
Thank you, Jan. It's funny how the older we get, the less sure of ourselves we are!
DeleteGreat ending!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Michelle. Goes straight to the heart.
ReplyDeleteThis is a powerful and poignant poem, Michelle! Those cobwebbed corners awaiting your arrival captured me. I wonder what I might write my younger self (I have a few ideas!) but am also intrigued by what my younger self might write my older self. I suspect the latter is more attainable in this universe, but since I didn't have the foresight to write those letters, I'll have to imagine. Of course, I could perhaps write a letter now to my future self and tuck it away in a home-made time capsule....your poem has stirred all sorts of thoughts!
ReplyDeleteOhh....just lovely.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, this is full of a sweet regret, without remorse or sorrow.... Just a wish that a younger self had looked into future corners. A delight of insight.
ReplyDelete