Autumn sepia-tints gathering clouds copper:
at three o’clock the day is already
drawing curtains on a red and white chimney
rising from the other bank of the Oder,
piercing the horizon,
its smoke a white wind sock
frozen
while the weather takes a breath.
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille # 21: Take a Breath
This Monday Mish has brought us a new quadrille prompt, in which she talks about becoming caught up and stressed by worldly matters as well as our own personal struggles. She says that we can often lose sight of ourselves and sometimes need to step back to find a new perspective. Sometimes we just need to b..r..e..a..t..h..e. So today Mish would like us to take a deep breath. She’s even shared a few websites that offer techniques and tips for deep breathing and given us the word, ‘breath’ or ‘breathe’ for this week’s Q44. We can use other variations on the word, such as breathless, breathtaking, breathable or get creative with word-play, as long as it contains ‘breath’ or ‘breathe’.
This is wonderful… the way you have described the weather, the copper in the clouds is a perfect description of dusk, a promise of a better day to come…
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Thank you, Björn. I took a couple of hundred photos in Wroclaw and as soon as I remembered taking this one the afternoon we arrived I knew I wanted to write a poem about it .
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Love your description of a winter day: “at three o’clock the day is already / drawing curtains.” The imagery you’ve used in your words perfectly capture what is in the picture.
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Thank you, Linda!
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I love the rich textures: autumn-sepia tints, copper, white wind ~
The changing season is upon us ~ I pause as the weather takes a breath ~
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Thank you, Grace!
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Beautiful colour and imagery.
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Thanks Paul!
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Gorgeous imagery and I really like your choice in phrasing. Especially love “its smoke a white wind sock/ frozen”
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I’m so glad you like it, Mish. The trip to Wroclaw certainly inspired poetry!
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Interesting idea of the weather taking a breath of that air.
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Thanks for reading, Frank.
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Beautifully portrayed Kim..I love the frozen wind sock
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Thank you, Janice!
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Vivid descriptions, Kim! Love this.
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Thank you, Walt!
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Thisis wonderful poem – brief but filled with good ideas.
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That’s the thing with the Quadrille, you have to pack in all the meaning in 44 words – I enjoy having to keep to that strict economy of words.
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Such a stunning portrait of words. 🌹
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Stunning city.
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I love the idea of the weather taking a breath. 🙂
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That is exactly what it looked like! When we got out of the taxi there was a chilly wind. We had some lunch, left the hotel to go for a walk and the weather just seemed to stand still.
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Loved how the sepia color was so strong in your poem. It matched the picture perfectly.
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It was a sepia afternoon! Everything seemed to be tinged. It was my first afternoon there – the first couple of hours were just sepia!
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Such exquisite color imagery! ❤️
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Thank you, Sanaa!
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Lovely, evocative poem Kim. My wife is from Wroclaw, it’s a beautiful city replete with history, and sometimes the odd, sad reminder of war.
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I loved it there, even if it was only for a couple if days.
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piercing the horizon,
its smoke a white wind sock
One could see the white thick smoke leisurely swaying in the breeze, dancing its blues!
Hank
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Thanks Hank!
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The poem and picture are twinned yet they work equally well apart. The deep sulfur of industry that tints all our endeavors.
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We’ve had pink and yellow tinged skies here but, as we in the country and close to the ciast, we don’t get those sepia skies. I couldn’t look away!
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A wonderful poem Kim and I especially love ‘its smoke a white wind sock frozen while the weather takes a breath.’
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Thanks Xenia!
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You are very welcome :o)
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sigh! this is how the day gathers itself in – “at three o’clock the day is already
drawing curtains”
too marvellous for words Kim
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Thank you so much, Laura!
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(shiver!) … You’ve reminded me to find my bed socks for tonight.
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How about a nice fleecy hot-water bottle?
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Good idea. 😀
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What strikes me in this, Kim, is how you’ve turned to color to create a mood. Copper! When so much of winter-inspired poetry is pewter. Like the use of contrast.
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I was actually taken aback by the colour, Victoria, as I had it in my mind that the city would be quite grey – it was, however, very colourful. They were setting up the Christmas market on the day we arrived, with a massive tree and lots of lights. Wroclaw is full of statues, memorials – and gnomes absolutely everywhere. I’ll be writing a post about the gnomes at some point but I wasn’t able to take pictures of all of them – there were so many!
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Interesting to think the weather would need to take a breath. Lovely imagery.
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I know I had to take a breath – it was cold! Thanks for reading and commenting, Teresa.
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It’s one of the most
ironic things..
smoke
stacks
and
sunsets
off bays that
figuratively and
literally can together
same take one’s breath away..:)
Living clouds
killing
cLouds…
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Mm, smokestacks and sunsets. As long as it’s not a nuclear reactor on the horizon.
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Or
Twitter
Buttons..;)
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“at three o’clock the day is already
drawing curtains” what wonderful imagery… I like your picture too
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Thank you! I had two shots but the colours and smoke on this one were the most inspiring!
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Beautifully described. And I do admire one-sentence poems.
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Thank you, Rosemary!
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oh wow….a painting in words!!
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Thanks for reading, Sree!
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Love the image of smoke as a windsock.
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Thank you Bryan!
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