Ghost in the Night

It’s a ghost in the night,
keeping me awake
with its whispering,
muttering and sighing,

and nudges in my poetic ribs.
It pokes me with imagery
and ties me up in allegory
until I reach for notebook and pen

(which I left on the armchair).
Empty-handed (in inky
midnight darkness) I creep
gingerly downstairs.

It’s a ghost in the early morning,
a wisp of poetry draped across
my aching neck,
a metaphoric albatross

checking rhymes, ensuring
enjambment and caesura make
sense, without a syntactical break.
By the time the sun has risen,

it’s left me to punctuate
the words it deigned to articulate
as it drifts into early sunlight
with grey mist and the remains of night.

Kim M. Russell, 4th April 2019

Image result for ghost disappearing into morning mist Pinterest
Image found on Pinterest

My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Writing Poetry, also linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night

Susan is hosting this week and I’m a little late linking up, but NaPoWriMo has been keeping me very busy. Plus I’m preparing to visit my daughter to spend some time with my lovely grandson. But I couldn’t miss this prompt, a topic I’ve written about many times and which is always different.

I wish I’d written the words by Robert Frost that Susan has shared together with some from Sanaa, Rajani and Sumana, as well as poems by Joyce Carol Oates, Lydia Huntley Sigourney and Matt Haig.

Our challenge is to write a new poem about writing poetry, limiting ourselves to addressing one poem rather than generalizing.

42 thoughts on “Ghost in the Night”

  3. Writing a poem about another written poem is always a gas; insightful and rife with authenticity–like making a move about making movies (DAY FOR NIGHT, THE STUNT MAN, etc.). I. too, sometimes wake to a poem gestating, churning to become written. It’s a good time to be a poet .

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  8. This is incredibly rich in its use of imagery and language, Kim! ❤️ I love; “it’s left me to punctuate the words it deigned to articulate as it drifts into early sunlight with grey mist and the remains of night.” I have learned with time to pay attention to the muse .. 🙂 usually its the opening line which floats into my mind.. and I allow myself to follow without hesitation. ❤️

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  11. “a metaphoric albatross” Haha! And yet this poem is so sensual that I feel you LOVE even the gingerly steps and the bird and the skills your old schooling sticks around your words. There is no curse, just a gift. A ghost! Ha! Marvelous.

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