Contemplating.

Contemplating.
Wayzata, Minnesota

Monday, August 27, 2012

The Mag #132 Claustrophobic Shades

THE MAG


Claustrophobic Shades


Big Room, 1948, by Andrew Wyeth


 
Once upon a lake there was a recluse who never left his house.

       This one big room was a reminder of why our marriage failed.  What ever happened to your chair you'd never leave, for fear of discovering life beyond?  Perhaps it followed you?  A bleak and stuffy parlor, empty of laughter and vacant of any tender footsteps.  I see our two slender candle sticks never to hold fire still wait in hopeless abandon. 

        If only you'd agreed to install french doors leading to a balcony overlooking a terrace.  Never mind the color, or these porous walls and worn parquet floors.  Even the brick fireplace couldn't soften the uniquely masculine feel of this big room.  Two years later, and still only your family photographs adorn the mantelpiece.   Your few desires visible yet, reflecting your subtle, feelings comparable to the colors of the desert within your soul. 

      Just standing in the center of this big room, my memory of it feels like it belongs to someone else.   My living outside these walls, has  untwisted that bitter knot once living inside me, and made big room for the sweet wines of life.  My only wish is that somebody has the fighting sense to breathe new life between these walls; tending the light, with life living around their feet.
  
The story of his life was simple, and it went like this.

Thus he struggled, by every method to keep his light shining before men- (Henry David Thoreau) 



All the while she lived in darkness and fled for light of her own.



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http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2012/08/mag-132.html

16 comments:

Cloudia said...

Creative channeling of a universal struggle. Well conceived and carried out.



Aloha from Honolulu
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Berowne said...

A novel take on the prompt, and quite moving...

JJ said...

Good story. I have joined The Mag. Thanks.

21 Wits said...

JJ - Hooray! Welcome! I haven't been at it for long, but it's really good for the soul. As much as I enjoy putting words to the image of the week, I think reading all the other posts ranks even more exciting! A great group of poets for sure. You'll enjoy it too I just know it! :)

21 Wits said...

Cloudia - Thank you so much. It means a lot coming from you!

21 Wits said...

Berowne - thank you, now I have to pop over and read yours!

Tess Kincaid said...

A touching note on leaving...

Brian Miller said...

wow...that first paragraph is gripping....some really great lines in it to set the tone....ugh on leaving....felt...

Grace said...

I like how you painted the bleakness of the room, the failure of marriage, the candle sticks that never hold fire. I am glad she has a life outside the big room. Lovely write ~

Little Nell said...

Nicely summed up, the failure, the intransigence, the hollow feel of the empty room. There's hope there too though because she has tasted the sweet wines of life. Lovely!

Irish Gumbo said...

A touching investigation of a struggle many of us undertake, even if it only happens on the inside. Still, we keep the shining. We must!

Laurie Kolp said...

Sad and contemplative... I really like the desert of your soul. You've captured that beautifully, Karen!

Silent Otto said...

I often muse that all the great spiritual teachers are like lighthouses, people make the mistake of sailing towards them , only to find themselves torn to pieces on the rocks that they are trying to warn us away from . Yet it is a strangely tender shipwrecking ,

Kranky Granny said...

Nice to discover "The mag." Found this a very interesting piece.

21 Wits said...

Rita- thanks I do to, and so happy that I discovered it. I found it through other blogger friends that I've posted with in other areas...hop along with us sometime!

Lucy Westenra said...

A very interesting look at the prompt. Thank you.