Poetry often takes us to strange places – to feelings and actions that are hard to express except through the medium of a poem. To the “liminal,” in other words – a place or sensation that exists at or on both sides of a boundary or threshold, neither one thing nor the other, but something betwixt and between.
In honor of the always-becoming nature of poetry, I challenge you today to select a photograph from the perpetually disconcerting @SpaceLiminalBot, and write a poem inspired by one of these odd, in-transition spaces. Will you pick the empty mall food court? The vending machine near the back entrance to the high school gym? The swimming pool at what seems to be M.C. Escher’s alpine retreat? No matter what neglected or eerie space you choose, I hope its oddness tugs at the place in your mind and heart where poems are made.
Artoonsinn Prompt for Day 4: Hide your name or the meaning of your name somewhere in the poem.
I’m combining the two prompts by choosing the featured picture from the handle @SpaceLiminalBot and using the word “prayer” (my name “Vandana” translates to “prayer” in English) in the poem.
Floating in the desert
In between the azure and the green
I float to find my place
What really is my space?
–
A space that I can call my own
A space where who I am, I can be
Should I look for my roots or should I find my wings?
–
Sometimes, my feet touch the ground
My wits become aware of one extreme
A tryst with reality sets in
–
The humdrum, the extraordinary,
The boundaries, the accountabilities
The convoluted multifarious maze of living
–
As I reach the threshold
I look at the sky-
Cerulean, pristine with divinity glistening
–
It lifts my spirits like wind beneath wings
Slowly and steadily, I touch the zenith,
Surrounded by white, I find myself
–
A fairy tale seems to be unfolding
An exquisite, wondrous place it is
Is it not far away from my reality?
–
To another extreme, I seem to have stretched,
In the bliss of nature, away from human living
In a fantasy world, I try to find my footing
–
But not for long, as equilibrium is again lost
I spot an urge for the truth, the realities
I now set up my space on the vastness of sand
–
A place that’s real, still away from reality of reality
On the secluded piece of land,
I hope to be, who truly I am
–
I grapple for words, to describe my quest
A quest I believe in, a quest for self,
To discern emotions, the quintessence of experiences
–
Searching for myself, I find akin to a prayer
A prayer to dive in the profundity of ocean within,
Somewhere in between the azure and the green
©Vandana Bhasin
04.04.2021
PS: I’m finding some trouble with spacing between stanzas using these blocks on WordPress, so used a “-” after each stanza. Hope it’s not drawing too much attention 🙂
Lovely Vandana and, until you mentioned it, I had not noticed the spacers you’d used.
I saw this photograph and I thought ‘Wow! What peace to be working here with absolutely no disturbance.” Its interesting how you weaved your poem describing the beauty of nature, the need for solitude and through this explained the image.
I loved this, especially the ending. <3
I have the same issue on WordPress, I use a '.' (period). I think it looks more aesthetic 😀