RoadWriter

Make Visible: Inspired by Nature

My poem, “The Banquet,” was inspired by deer in our side yard.  As a writer, don’t be afraid of using nature as inspiration, especially as a jumping off point to a longer piece.  Your poem doesn’t have to be explicitly about flora or fauna, but could evolve into a metaphor about something else entirely.

Poetry prompt:  Go for a walk outside.  If something from the natural world catches your eye, start a poem with that image as the kernel.

The Banquet

The deer eat the weeds,

the apples, the lower branches of trees.

Such enthusiasm!

What feast have you set out

before them?

Like watching a puppy or a child eat.

Of the seven deadlies, gluttony…

Now it’s the ice cream aisle,

the frozen dinners and pizza,

the deli, the chip and pop aisle,

the white bread, the lowly potato.

You are laughing at us,

I know.

How disappointed you must be in us?

With our rice cakes, salads without dressing,

low-carb diets.

Come eat!

Life is a banquet, the table is set.

Are there no takers?

“Manna makes me fat.”

“Fishes go right to my thighs.”

So we starve in the desert,

refusing what you have offered,

this miracle.

© Anne Westlund

“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.”~Robert Bresson, French Film Director

Photo by Chris Westlund