It was a tragedy, seven years’ misfortune.
And yet, the shards were beautiful,
sharp edges shimmering,
a dark rift spreading
as the mirror cracked
from side to side. A waterfall
of tiny splinters tumbled
to the stone flagged floor
and underneath the bathroom door,
tiny jewels of tears
sobbed from her magnificent reflection:
bound by a curse, her soul is free.
Kim M. Russell, 2nd December 2019
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Rommy’s Challenge: Words to Live By
For her final post ever with the Toads, which she says was a bittersweet task, Rommy has turned to the power of words. She would like us to reflect on words that mean something special to us, write a poem based on them, and share what the actual words were that inspired us.
When I was nine years old, we had a wonderful teacher who loved poetry, stories and language. One of the poems she had us recite was ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I loved the sound of the words, the way they rolled in my mouth, as if they were magic spells. My favourite lines were:
‘She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro’ the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side’
and they stayed with me, especially the final line.
writing in north norfolk 
What I like the most about your poem is how you have managed to blend the traditional with modern diction. The idea of a bathroom mirror offers many interpretations for the 21st century Lady of Shalott and reminds me of the timelessness of good story telling.
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Thank you, Kerry, true praise indeed.
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How wonderful to love words – and to show that in your own words..a stunning poem
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Thank you, Jae!
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Rhythm in the play of opposites. It does have a timelessness. (K)
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Thanks Kerfe.
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I really love the thought of brokenness as beauty. Perhaps, because it agrees so well with my own beliefs–even when things go terribly wrong, we can find something precious about it (if we look hard enough).
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Thank you, Magaly.
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I was struck by two ideas – that a mirror and a broken mirror will both reflect, and second, that the mirror cracked from side to side feels like a smile, like grinning ear to ear. Something is broken and yet happy.
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I see what you mean, Lori!
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I am enchanted by how you took the original idea and really ran with it to create something both true to its source and open to new meaning.
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Thank you so much, Rommy. I still can’t believe this is our final month in the Garden. 😥
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Wow . The breaking is the new beginning.
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Thank you, Colleen!
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Wonderful how you brought back a special memory and poetry from the past ….
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Thank you, Helen.
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How beautifully you wrote this Kim, it really is a magnificent poem.
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Thank you so much, Robin!
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The last four words are the saving grace of the story. Lovely, Kim
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Thank you, Debi.
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Kim,this is stunning. There is beauty in broken things, if we only pause to look.
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Thank you so much, Linda. Yes, there’s beauty in broken things and broken people.
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Your Lady of Shallott and Kerry’s Ophelia (and who else, I wonder, as I read this prompt’s pond) both delve so deeply into the noosing noir of the poem, the long note of yearning strung so over deep waters. Here what breaks the heart is also the metier of its enchantment, the broken mirror’s “shards” “beautiful, / sharp edges shimmering,” “tiny jewels of tears” “shimmering” with grief. That’s what the great poems of yearning and loss so reflect for us all, offering us tiny reflections of our own longing. Well done.
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Thank you kindly, Brendan, for your close reading and thoughtful comments.
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I am glad you used that poem as your inspiration. “tiny jewels of tears” touched me.
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Thank you, Sara.
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Beauty in those tears. Love the way you linked the glass shards to jewels of tears.
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Thank you, Viv.
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OH… so lovely. And I have a fondness for that poem because of Anne of Green Gables… sigh.
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Thank you, Margaret. It’s been such a long time since I read Anne of Green Gables. I think I’ll check if the library has a copy – for old times’ sake.
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