View from an Open Window

No curtains in this humble room,
no fabric flapping on the breeze;
a smudge of smoke in the distant gloom
and a street devoid of birds and trees.

The clouds are tinged with morning pink,
a forecast of downpours yet to come;
a thought to make my poor heart sink
and resolve to spend the day at home.

This view of the town is high enough
to observe the waking of the street:
schoolchildren stop to play and laugh,
and a sleepy labourer drags his feet.

The view from this window is an urban scene
of brick and stone, but no hint of green.

Kim M. Russell, 18th April 2023

Bertha Wegmann (Danish, 1847 – 1926) ‘View towards a street through an open window’.

It’s Tuesday, and at the dVerse Poets Pub that means Poetics, this week with Merril, who says, ‘When I sit at my kitchen table in the early morning, I often see the sunrise through our windows’. She quotes from the balcony scene in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo asks, ‘But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?’ She also shares lines from Rachel Sherwood’s poem ‘Windows’ – which is today’s prompt.

Merril asks us to write about windows—portals, architecture, what we see from them, what we wish to see, or someone knocking on ours. We can interpret the prompt as we wish. She has even given us an image as inspiration: Bertha Wegmann’s ‘View towards a street through an open window’.

31 thoughts on “View from an Open Window”

    1. You know how much I enjoy writing sonnets, Björn, and rather like the darker side of things. But yes, there is always a hint of joy in a sonnet.

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  2. So cool that you and Björn both wrote sonnets! Starting this dVerse Poetics with a high bar!
    I’m not sure that it is filled with doom. I think perhaps it’s just before spring, and the person is waiting to see signs of green. I love how you describe what the person sees and hears from the window from up high–and I love the laughing children!

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  9. I like the view from this window. It feels like the one looking out is content with the grey of the day, as there is still life and light shining through it. Lovely sonnet, Kim.

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  12. There may be a day like this someday, soon or much later for us. I sort of dread this, have chosen a place I would like to be when that happens. If I/we can go outside for a walk, it is close to the public library, walking under the trees and beside a small pond to get there. And a Trader Joe’s grocery store.
    BTW, I had tended to use one of the London Eye pictures I have but came upon the antique first and liked that. We don’t hear of folk getting sick from their Eye ride. We generally rode it when our walk took us this way. But our daughter is back from her five-year tour of duty in London, we’ve been again a few times but didn’t ride the Eye. We could see it though, most every time.
    ..

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