Truth is No Stranger
Emma
Stranded on the shore
of a world she never knew,
longing like a lover for a sail.
Edna
The seduction of solitude
the final lover stretches calm
across the Gulf.
Virginia
The water, finally,
the water fills her
like no lover ever could.
Magpie Tale
Quietly moving; well written...
ReplyDeleteQuietly moving; well written...
ReplyDeleteTrue enough the calm of the storms.
ReplyDeletethree different reactions- very true, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love this ... hints of Jane Austen and her Emma, Edna Ferber and Virginia Woolf.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! I confess that the Edna one was lost on me... still, the very different approaches to this were well-angled.
ReplyDeletelonging like a lover for a sail...love that...and love the refs through out...
ReplyDeleteEveryone - When I saw the prompt, I had just read this quote from Madame Bovary: "Deep down in her heart, she was waiting and waiting for something to happen. Like a shipwrecked mariner, she gazed out wistfully over the wide solitude of her life, if so be she might catch the white gleam of a sail away on the dim horizon."
ReplyDeleteThat led to thoughts of Edna (Pontellier, from Kate Chopin's The Awakening) and other literary figures who chose the sea -- as did Edna and Virginia Woolfe. Hence the title of the poem, a play on the old sayong "Truth is stranger than fiction." in the case of V. Woolfe, not necessarily. She chose the sea.
Please forgive typos. These on-screen keypads are beyond my dexterity.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful Karen...i love it!!
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful - and although the last verse is fabulous, it chills me to the bone.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Magpie!
ReplyDelete