Rummaging

“Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.” From Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Digging deep into the handbag
of my soul, I find a snot-filled tissue
of lies, a childhood fraught with tears
and worry, my mother’s bloody nose,
coming home from school on my own
to find a locked door, her on the floor.

But my fingers brush the silk lining,
a little torn, nevertheless comforting,
like grandmother’s cuddles,
days spent under the garden hose,
my grandfather pruning his favourite rose,
its scent still sweet and redolent.

Kim M. Russell, 9th September 2025

Image by Considerate Agency on Unsplash

Tuesday is the day for Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub and, this week, Melissa is our host. She asks us not to shoot the messenger on Tolstoy’s birthday.

Melissa reminds us of Tolstoy’s best known works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and that he was born on 9th September 1828. However, her greatest introduction to Tolstoy was a book entitled Thoughtful Wisdom, from which she has taken some of his thoughts.

She asks us to choose one of the ideas that she has provided, one that resonates, that we believe to be true, and then write a poem about a time (or times) our actions aligned with the idea we’ve chosen and a time our actions did not: one poem including both concepts.

30 thoughts on “Rummaging”

  7. I chuckled during the first stanza. It is so sweet and honest and something I can connect to, even though I’ve never owned the handbag. I also love the comfort of the final stanza. Very nice contrast. Thank you for your poem.

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  13. Kim, your poem touched the very depth of my soul … no child should have to experience what you share … and all children should experience the joy you knew with grandma and grandma.

    Liked by 1 person

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