In celebration of National Poetry Month, my Friday Flash this week is not a flash at all, but a poem (though if you consider it prose instead I suppose it could be called a flash). Be sure to check out Robert Lee Brewer’s PAD challenge on Writer’s Digest and have a go at poetry yourself, whether you normally pen poems or, (like me), do not.
The Journals: A Life, was inspired by last year’s PAD challenge prompt, to write a poem about “new arrivals”. Though I quickly threw a poem together that day it was quite unorganized and so I’ve messed with it several times over the past year. I hope you enjoy!
The Journals: A Life, by Deanna Schrayer
Battered dun Samsonite filled near to
flowing over, bought sixteen years hence,
from a stranger’s yard one Saturday.
She knows there’s more room – the letters need
only be rearranged. “You can’t take
it with you,” friends mock… yet again.
Thin yellows move aside grudgingly.
Worn creams scoot over, more accepting,
(they are young yet, they know no better).
There are those that were once aflame with
neon glow, dim now beyond color
itself. Dull nothingness, remains.
Tattered scraps dance with joy. Only these
are thrilled with the company, welcome
her new words with a potent hunger,
leap into the dusty air, flutter
about, embracing one another,
glide like feathers to the bottom.
She sits on the lid, blocking daylight
altogether, clasps the lock, wonders,
once again, how many years will have
passed before her eyes feel the need to
touch those words flowed from ink-stained, aching
fingers. What those words will mean, then.
********
Go here to read a couple of my favorite poems. Who are your favorite poets? Do you have a particular favorite poem?
Be sure to visit the Friday Flash Community for more great flash fiction by outstanding authors!
This Side....Over Yonder 
lovely Deanna, very, um poetic! But seriously you captured what old letters can stir up in our emotions.
Thanks so much Marc! It just so happens that I had been going through old letters and journal entries not long before I came upon the prompt. In other words, this poem is not all fictional. 🙂
Nice poem for poetry month. Reminds me, I need to give a poem a go this month, and no excuse since I have 21 more posts to make for A-to-Z thing.
I’m glad you got some inspiration out of this David, and that you’re so determined. Go, David, go! 🙂
I feel a sadness in this, perhaps the pages yearning for the touch of their writer again.
Thanks so much for saying that Steve as that’s what I felt when writing it. It’s always great to hear the reader feels what the writer felt, eh?
well done, you captured emotions well, and your poem flows so it reads like a story, while keeping the essence of a poem alive, nice!
Thanks so much Claudia! That means a lot to me considering I don’t often write poems (and know little about the structure of poetry).
That’s lovely Deanna. ^_^
Thank you Helen. 🙂
One hopes these meanings will change in time, or differ upon the better experiences of future attendants.
Yes, John, one does hope. And I hope that last line conveys exactly that – that, eventually, she’ll have learned many of those Big Life Lessons the words (in the journals) reflect.
It’s funny how we keep the old memories around, trying desparately to hold on to something long past. I don’t know if I could ever go back to the passionate ramblings of my youth, though. I’m afraid I would lose respect and have little grace for the budding heart full of wonder and promise. As the saying goes, I would be willing to replay the years of my youth if only I could take the wisdom learned over the years with me. A good poem, Deanna. I’m envious of you for doing it. I don’t think I have it in me, and I’m struck with wonder at those who do.
You hit the nail on the head Stephen. I used to wish that I could go back in time and change things but, over the years, I’ve come to realize the importance of the lessons learned along with the good times had; after all, that’s what it takes to appreciate whatever “here and now” we are living.
I encourage you to write poetry for, even if you decide never to share it, it can do a lot of good for the soul. In fact, when I wrote this poem I was going through a very rough time, one of those Major Life Changes, and I was frustrated that, for the last several months, the only thing I seemed able to write was my feelings in journals (yes, this poem is basically a true story), I couldn’t write fiction to save my life. I was so very frustrated but, being determined to get back to fiction, and as sort of a device for healing, I decided to give poetry a try. I am so glad I did. I still don’t know much about the formal structure of poetry, but I learned enough to morph some of those journal entries into poems, even creating characters in order to “take myself out of the picture”, and it did wonders for helping me move past that challenging time.
Thanks so much for reading and for your kind words!
I love the acknowledgement of how the letters will change meaning over time. Nice one!
Thanks so much Katherine, I’m so glad that came through.