Ever hopeful

[David Steele]

Probably not the most helpful post, but I keep thinking about this poem when I go through my submissions tracker. It's become something of a summary of how I feel about my own queries, so I wanted to share it with you.

FOLK TALE

Prayers like gravel
flung at the sky’s
window, hoping to attract
the loved one’s
attention. But without
visible plaits to let
down for the believer
to climb up,
to what purpose open
that casement?
I would have refrained long since
But that peering once
Through my locked fingers
I thought that I detected
the movement of a curtain.

R.S. Thomas

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Very nice poem, i like it

 

[Marc Joan]

Bit glum, David! Particularly seeing as you've just won the Flash Fiction contest!

But a nice poem.

 

[Marc Joan]

But if you want to be gloomy, I can out-gloom you. This, from 'The Death of a Poet' by the wonderful Charles Causley:

Suddenly his mouth filled with sand
His tractor of blood stopped thumping.
He held five icicles in each hand.
His heart packed up jumping.

[...]

Over the church a bell broke like a wave upended.
The hearse left for winter with a lingering hiss.
I looked in the sky for a sign, but no bird descended.
I went across the road to the pub; wrote this.

Life is short. Be happy.

 

[David Steele]

I didn't think it was glum. More about hope.
That said, I do tend to be a miserable sod for the sake of it!

 

[Marc Joan]

I didn't think it was glum. More about hope.
That said, I do tend to be a miserable sod for the sake of it!

Yes, but the writer makes the hope so tiny, it leaves [this] reader feeling a bit glum.

 

[Mark Odell]

It's a nice poem. Elegant, I think. I will admit I didn't detect much positivity but I suppose the important thing is that we discuss it.