First post. Comments please.

[Andrew Jean]

Shutter

She says “I can’t stay in ghost towns”

and I admire the sentiment

almost as much

as I admire the sentence: six syllables

betray a poetry of spirit.

She is an artist in exile

from purpose, confusing the music of

her shutter

with the chiming of a clock.

She hasn’t considered

that every picture is a piece

of a puzzle unseen,

and the day she gives them to the air

is the day they fall together in

a snarl of invisible strings.

She might

laugh.

[Sherry]

Hi Andrew,

Welcome, and thanks for posting your first post. This is an interesting
poem. I’m not quite sure how to interpret it. Perhaps it’s better if I just try to ‘feel’ it. I really like the central phrase:

“She is an artist in exile
from purpose, confusing the music of
her shutter
with the chiming of a clock.”

Would I be way off base if I thought it had something to do with a person suffering some mild form of dementia? It just reminds me a bit of my mother who did suffer from one.

Sherry

[Andrew Jean]

Hi Sherry. Thanks. I had almost forgotten I'd posted this.

The poem is about a problem of the mind, but not specifically dementia. It is more about a psychological malaise or "bad outlook". I wrote it for a friend of mine who is a very talented photographer but frequently depressed and severely lacking in confidence. I worry one day she'll stop taking pictures, though I doubt a poem can change that.

I like that you saw your mother in this. If you relate to the poem, I suppose it is a "success".

Thanks again,
AJ