For today’s Poetry Friday (as hosted byA Year of Reading), I’ll be sharing an original poem. When we joined this meme a year ago, we initially posted original poems, but soon moved towards sharing local poets and poets we love. Today, just to break from the usual routine, I’d like to share one of the poems I wrote for a personal writing project called Family Portrait. I started the writing project back in 2011 to get my writing muscle back into shape, its goal was to create poems around a family member or family event.
All Rights Reserve to M. Alberich Matthews
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In a cocoon of smoke©
My memories of her are cloaked in smoke,
The smell of nicotine thick in my mind.
Through the clouds, I see her green nightgown,
Her raised leg and her misery.
She was miserable,
In the mornings.
I called it sad back then, her face
Wrinkled at the forehead,
Her head of black and white curls
All in disarray
As she takes a slow drag
And like smoke, my thoughts of her
Fade, thin into the oblivion of memories
Who she was and where she was
Remain,
Eternally a mystery.
Except for that one image
Of her and her green night gown,
Scorned face, cocooned
In every day’s grey smoke.
So what do you think? What’s your poem for today?
I’m a dunce and can’t figure out how to link for the Poetry Friday Round Up this week, so I thought I’d just drop by and invite you to stop by my blog and read about the new Poetry Friday Anthology and Rebecca Kai Dotlich has a poem to share, Mrs. Betty. You’ll be welcome at http://www.poetryforkidsjoy.blogspot.com
Thanks for dropping by. Today’s host hasn’t put up the linky yet. She might do so later. Will visit your poetry friday later on.
Oh, Iphigene – such striking images. What an effective poem. You captured not only the sensations of being around someone shrouded in cigarette smoke (and what a weighty metaphor) but the feeling kids have about remembering some family member, but only fleetingly. So glad you shared an original today!
Thanks Robyn,
I’m glad you enjoyed this poem and captured it’s essence. We’ll see how many more originals i get to post, but I appreciate the warm response to the poem.
Enjoyed your poem — hope you post more originals
! Love family themes and portraits . . .
Hi Jama,
Thanks for the warm welcome to this original poem. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Let’s cross our fingers and wait and see if I get to post more originals for poetry friday. There’s a few poems in the collection i might share the others one of these days.
Powerful imagery…. I do hope she quit smoking!
Thanks. Unfortunately she’s still smoking. There were attempts to quit, but all failed.
I hear you…
Unexpected change of plans: the roundup is at A Year of Reading http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2012/08/poetry-friday-roundup-is-here.html Thanks for changing your link!
I love “cloaked in smoke” and “nicotine thick”. Memories of my parents are swirled with cigarette smoke. Luckily, they both quit many years ago. Unluckily, that wasn’t soon enough for my dad.
Hi,
Thanks for dropping by…Will change the link. I’m glad you enjoyed this poem. My mother is 61 and has yet to quit smoking. Despite our attempts at convincing her.
Great poem!
Thanks.
[...] In a Cocoon of Smoke [...]