Poet’s Room
There’s a certain slant of light
in the room where the women
come and go
talking of Michelangelo.
The walls, I’m pretty sure,
are of clay and wattles made
(though the wattles
don’t show much from this angle), and
in the icebox,
there are plums
(which you are probably saving
for breakfast.)
It houses such stuff
as dreams are made of (along with the plums), and
about as much reality
as humankind can bear.
it is somewhere
i have never traveled, despite
repeated tries, but i make myself believe,
that,
as I walk out one evening,
I will find it==
perhaps not until the dews
grow quivering
and chill–
perhaps not until winter itself
is icumen’ in–I don’t care–
as long as there’s still
a certain slant of light,
enough
to write by.
***********************************
The above is my “found” homage of sorts to Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Shakespeare, more Eliot, e.e. cummings, W.H. Auden, more Dickinson, and Ezra Pound. In other words, I’ve stolen a bunch of really terrific lines from all these great poets! (In exchange for my everlasting love.)
The poem responds to the pictorial prompt posted by Tess Kincaid of Magpie Tales, the Andrew Wyeth painting, slightly modified above, “Big Room.” (I’m not sure the room in my mind actually looks too much like this one.)
I am also linking the poem to dVerse Poets Pub’s Open Link Night.
Check out Magpie Tales and dVerse for wonderful poetry and while you are at it, check out my books! Poetry, GOING ON SOMEWHERE, (by Karin Gustafson, illustrated by Diana Barco). 1 Mississippi -counting book for lovers of rivers, light and pachyderms, or Nose Dive, a very fun novel that is perfect for a pool or beachside escape. Nose Dive is available on Kindle for just 99 cents!

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