Fudging the assignment.

This is what I’m taking into my workshop session tomorrow. I was supposed to revise what was selected (out of three I had written) as the first stanza of a poem about Vermeer’s painting and then write three possible second stanzas. I gave it my best shot, but that didn’t work for me. What works for me is this:
Vermeer

One thought on “Fudging the assignment.

  1. I have enjoyed watching you wrestle, in that part of me wriggles just from the uncomfortable memories associated with “poetry bootcamp” (which all workshops feel like to me,) and I’m gratefully relieved not to be going through THAT again …
    yet the other part of me is sad that it’s been so long since I went through the struggle; my muscles — weak and crying out for attention — are making me itch.
    This ambiguity has awakened to become an irritating roar of tides, so thank you for sharing your struggle with us. I hope you find a way to stick with it to the end, as your poem is beginning to reveal the fine lines of a delicate feminine alabaster sculpture underneath the layers of scaffolding.
    She’s quite magnificent.

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