I wondered what lurked in the landing’s shadows.
I listened to the creak of breathing wood
and the wash of my imagination’s shallows.
I whispered to the upstairs ghosts
mollifying volleys of hallos
and showers of secrets and prayers –
just making sure they stayed upstairs.
Kim M. Russell, 2018
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Bits of Inspiration: Stairs
This Thursday Susie is inspiring us to write new poems about stairways with inspiration from Led Zeppelin, some very nice images and quotes.
writing in north norfolk 
My goodness this is good!💗 The image of “mollifying volleys of hallos and showers of secrets and prayers” is especially haunting! Beautifully penned.💗
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Thank you, Sanaa! I have a busy afternoon ahead of me but will return later to see what other poets have done with the prompt, which is open to interpretation.
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Oooooh the spooky stairs…so well formed in your poem…how many things did we imagine might be there in our young imaginations?
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A haunting poem, Kim…with beautiful words…as always (creak of breathing wood…..). Those ghosts had better stay up there!
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Thank you, Viv!
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🙂
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kaykuala
I whispered to the upstairs ghosts
just making sure they stayed upstairs.
In life, it is good to ensure our position is strong vis-a-vis to other contending elements before proceeding onwards to other bigger things. Agreed! Great principle to follow, Kim!
Hank
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😊
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Love this! Stairs with all their creaks, and shadows can really bring out my dark imaginings. Thank you so much for writing for the prompt!
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Thank you, Susie, and thanks for the prompt, it was right up my street!
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This reminds of the house of my grandparents… all those stairs and rooms… yes a great place to be scared and scare your little cousins…
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Luv your ghost buster bravado Kim
” whispered to the upstairs ghosts
mollifying volleys of hallos”
much💚love
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Thank you, Gillena! Much love to you this Thursday!
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Oh, nicely spooky.
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Thanks Sherry!
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Who’s there? You whisper all the right words, and the ending is just what a spooked child would say. So nicely done.
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Thank you, Brendan. My grandparents house is firmly embrace in my mind and I often dream about it.
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Groovy story-telling.. 😎🥀😎🥀😎🥀
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Thanks Dorna!
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A warning, a plea, a hope and a prayer …. I like how this flows …. yet, strangely, or maybe not – the way you’ve captured the tension, just the edge of reason, but somehow, it doesn’t feel like a threatening scenario. It’s your word choices Kim 🙂 It’s well done – just plays with the “tinkling in the mind” of feeling slightly troubled – the imagination toying, but not quite running away in hysteria. Yup – perfectly penned 🙂
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Thank you so much for your kind comments. 🙂
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I had a friend (she’s dead now) that swore her house was haunted, though they were friendly ghosts. I would be like you though and pray they stayed away. Very nicely done and great word choices.
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Thanks Debi!
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Well your ghosts seemed friendly enough but probably a bit over the top as I suppose I would be if I was one with range of operation limited to cupboards and stairs. Trouble is if you do sit own and talk to them will they take advantage of you? Sshh! I have just heard a creak, I let you know later. As you can see I really enjoyed your piece.
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Some days those ghosts were the only friends I had. Cheers Robin!
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I liked your poem. I also clicked the like button but for some reason when I came back my like is no longer showing, not sure why. Just letting you know because you may have more likes than you think but they may not be sticking.
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Thank you so much. I think there’s a problem with WordPress at the moment.
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