Today, our optional prompt challenges you to write a poem based on a “walking archive.” What’s that? Well, it’s when you go on a walk and gather up interesting thing – a flower, a strange piece of bark, a rock. This then becomes your “walking archive” – the physical instantiation of your walk. If you’re unable to get out of the house (as many of us now are), you can create a “walking archive” by wandering around your own home and gathering knick-knacks, family photos, maybe a strange spice or kitchen gadget you never use. One you’ve finished your gathering, lay all your materials out on a tray table, like museum specimens. Now, let your group of materials inspire your poem! You can write about just one of the things you’ve gathered, or how all of them are all linked, or even what they say about you, who chose them and brought them together.

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I took a walk today – in Heaven
The sun streamed in through white lace curtains

and made rainbows on the waxed marble tiles

under the glass coffee table with legs like branches of a tree

The rays lit up the books on the bookshelf

and spread their arms around the clay pots from Jordan-
The blue mosaic glinted and sparkled the Turkish eye

White flowers in murano glass vases decked the tables

and crystal ballerinas stood in arabesque

Two Buddhas looked down from above

One cross-legged, in ivory and the other legs dangling, in brass

I walked across the labyrinth of memories-

On spaces covered with Persian rugs made by Afghans

Each wall told our story

of places, of love, of loss

and of roads taken

I saw joy in a imitation of Leonid Afremov’s painting splattered with colors

yellow, orange, red and blue and I saw rebellion

in a pair of eyes captured in black and white, in a frame

I heard the sound of laughter through open doors

and the voicing- of- opinion in the retreating footsteps on the floors

Then I reached the end

 

The walk revealed to me much more than I had known

that this here was my chef d’ouevre*, no canvas could I paint better

my plat de prédeliction**, took twenty years of dedication

It was my Musée du Louvre***,  mine to explore

It was une création de passion****,  une œuvre d’amour*****

I sat at the wooden table

that stands against the mauve wall on which hangs a white frame from ‘The One’

With photographs of the children – dancing, posing, smiling – happy

In my sanctuary

Music plays in the background

Belinda croons, ‘Ooh, Heaven is a place on earth’

‘They say in heaven love comes first-‘

chef d’ouevre* – artist’s best work

plat de prédeliction** – chef’s signature dish

Musée du Louvre*** – Louvre museum

création de passion ****- a creation of passion

une œuvre d’amour– a work of love

P.C From the Net

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Today’s poetry resource is a podcast from the Poetry Translation Centre. Every week, they feature a poem from a poet not writing in English, along with an English translation. This podcast is a great way to learn more about contemporary poetry in other countries!