In a room too small for tantrums,
surreptitious snow storms
smother her with quiet quilts.
She is a swirl of flakes and ice,
cradling the little heat that’s left
in the whiteness of her breasts.
Kim M. Russell, 2018
My response to Imaginary garden with Real Toads Fireblossom Friday: Poetic Imagery
This week Fireblossom is our host. She says that a lot of things go into the construction of a good poem: the sheer beauty of the words and the way they sound when written skilfully; the energy behind those words; the message they carry; and the form of the poem. She says they are all important but today she is concerned with poetic imagery.
She goes on to say that simply breaking up an ordinary sentence into little lines does not make it poetry and writing free verse without any poetic imagery is a little like entering the Texas Chili Cook-Off without bringing any spices, which is why she has given us examples of poetic imagery in the hands of masters, such as ‘Ballad of the Black Sorrow’ by Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Neruda’s description of a ship’s figurehead.
Fireblossom wants us to blow her away with our poetic imagery! It can be a new poem or we may also rework an older poem in keeping with the idea of poetic imagery. Any style, length or subject, but no ordinary or tired language.
writing in north norfolk 
And you have created a beautiful poem!!
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Thank you, Annell!
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Wow! I’d like a room too small for tantrums… You have crafted such a clear image in your portrait, Kim.
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Thank you, Kerry.
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Oh…I have felt like this. What woman hasn’t? I could feel it, the frost and the closely contained pain.
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The ice in the heart is the worst pain, with emotions completely frozen
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The white breasts – smothered with quilts – so cold — suffocated, trapped with emotions that want to explode but can’t! So well crafted.
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Thank you, Margaret!
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I love the surreptitious snow storms covering her in quilts. Cool.
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Thank you, Sherry.
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The wonderful use of imagery tells such vivid story. No room for tantrums sounds like a chilly, claustrophobic existence. Humanity gets frozen under such constraints.
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It certainly does.
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every line as clear and crisp as the subject – the opening line is genius Kim
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Thank you, Laura!
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Brava.. 🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀
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🙂
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my goodness. so much in this – the anger, the restrained/constrained pain….outstanding poem you have crafted so very well.
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Thank you, Toni. I don’t know where it came from!
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I can feel the suffocating feeling already from the first line. I sense the curse of being woman so strongly.
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I’m glad that came through, Bjorn.
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This started out perfectly, “room too small for tantrums.” I took pity on her right off, ladies need their space. I’m not sure the cold, heavily told for the small poem, was literal. But what else? Just the opposite but just as uncomfrtable as e.e. cummings’ “The Enormous Room” which came to mind. Love yours, Kim.
..
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Thank you, Jim.
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You are always sooo good at poetizing an image to perfection. I swear that by the time I got to the end, I was sighing (and my face probably looked like the lady in the painting). When one can’t scream, one might as well save the energy… for later.
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Thank you so much, Magaly! I’ve often felt like that.
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I love how you describe the energy being ..almost ‘taken away’…from the room. She’s left with just little heat….You’ve painted a pic here!
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Thanks Viv!
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