musings, life lessons & poetry from Theresa Jarosz Alberti

Poetry Challenge – Day 29

Welcome to Day 29 of my 30-Day Poetry Challenge!

Let’s just get right to the poem — the penultimate day! If you want to leave a comment and win a poetry book, please do! As always, details at the bottom of the post. Thanks for reading!

 *     *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
Today’s poem was inspired by my Libra horoscope this week, from FreeWillAstrology.com. These are always kind of quirky and creative: “The bad news it that 60 percent of Nevada’s Lake Mead has dried up. The good news – at least for historians, tourists, and hikers – is that the Old West town of St. Thomas has re-emerged. It had sunk beneath the water in 1936, when the government built the dam that created the lake. But as the lake has shrunk in recent years, old buildings and roads have reappeared. I foresee a comparable resurfacing in your life, Libra: the return of a lost resource or vanished possibility or departed influence.”

Lake Mead Horoscope

 

Anyone coming to these blue waters for decades
might never know. The surface so mirror-smooth
some days, rippling or choppy, the boats sailing
serene as the sun makes shimmering diamonds.
It is a lake, beautiful in this rocky brown place.

A salvage crew rafts through the town of St. Thomas near the ruins of a building as Lake Mead begins to submerge it in June 1938.

And yet, time and drought reveal what time
and dam hid, a once-was city of 500, folks
who lived and died together, had a school,
hotel, ice cream parlor, store. All submerged,
60 years among the lake weed and fishes,
hidden, and yet never really gone.

Me, like so many things, you cannot tell
the history from the surface. So many pieces,
large and small, have come together to make
this version… even I can’t know them all.
There are parts – maybe a small town – that
got submerged in my tidal waves of trauma,
essential parts of me I didn’t know how to save
so long ago. I see them revealing, reawakening
resurfacing now, as the waters recede, all the
work I have done to make it so, this me
that time forgot. Now I see it was always
there, waiting, ready for the chances to
come, this delightful, vanished
Possibility of Me.

 *     *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *     *

DETAILS:

  • I’m writing and posting a new poem every day through the month of April (yikes!), for better or worse.
  • AND, as a gift, I’m giving away a copy of my poetry book EVERY DAY this month. FREE!
  • Sign up to WIN a copy of (After) Confession by just leaving a comment beneath the poem of the day.
  • I will pick a winner every day in April! So comment every day for a new chance to win.

OR, you can purchase your own copy of (After) Confession for the new low price of $9.00 USD, shipping and handling included! Click here to read sample poems and purchase a copy.

April is National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996.

This month’s posts are part of the  NaPoWriMo challenge — that’s National Poetry Writing Month. At NaPoWriMo.net, you’ll find links to other participating writers and their poetry. AND daily writing prompts for inspiration to write your own poems. Check them out.

I’m so looking forward to your comments–  it doesn’t have to be about the poem. Write anything, share the name of your favorite poet or poem, write about the weather, whatever! And thanks for reading.

**Subscribe to Pen and Moon to receive easy updates by email. See the Subscribe link in the sidebar>>>  or at the bottom of this page.

Photo credit: Lake Mead NRA Public Affairs (and blogs.voanews.com), and Jeremy Bishop, courtesy of Unsplash.com

10 Comments

  1. Rita

    Beautiful!!!
    Yes-you’ve done amazing work on yourself and it’s been a wonderful journey to behold. xoxoxo

    • Theresa Alberti

      Thanks so much, Rita! 🙂

  2. Brenna

    I really love the imagery in this. I didn’t know about St. Thomas, but it is such a haunting image, and I think the way you use it as a metaphor is very apt and poignant. This resonates with me and I will be holding that image in my mind and pondering it in my own life, “…time and drought reveal what time/and dam hid…” It’s interesting to ponder that something negative, drought, can bring something “delightful” to the surface.

    • Theresa Alberti

      I’m so glad this spoke to you, Brenna! I was so intrigued by the idea of this sunken town revealed. Good point that the drought, not usually seen as anything good, is the catalyst!

  3. Sharon

    Hey! I’m a Libra too! Though I don’t read horoscopes because I don’t believe in them (to each their own). But that was a really interesting horoscope and it inspired a really lovely poem. I like the idea of parts of you that you had lost resurfacing.

    The horoscope and your poem reminded me of something I recently read; apparently when they built the Aswan Dam on the River Nile in Egypt, the flooding it caused threatened some ancient temples so they moved them!

    Can’t believe NaPoWriMo is almost over =/

    • Theresa Alberti

      Hey, fellow Libra! I don’t really believe much in them, but horoscopes are fun to check out. And this guy’s almost read like writing prompts… they often make me think and make connections. How cool about the Aswan Dam and the River Nile… it’s s good thing they were able to move those temples.

      It really is hard to believe it’s almost over– in some ways it’s felt long, in other ways short. You have really done an amazing job yourself with following prompts and sticking with it! It will feel so weird on Tuesday to think I don’t *have to* write a poem!

  4. Nora Jane Krahn

    This strange quirky comparison works… wondering what was hidden under my waters…

    • Theresa Alberti

      Isn’t that such a good question to contemplate? It gives me the shivers…

  5. Serena

    Golly T. So many wonderful lines and phrases in this. Two of my favorites so far:

    “…you cannot tell the history from the surface.”
    “…tidal waves of trauma…”

    Congrats on the work done.
    Congrats on the month near gone!

    XO

    • Theresa Alberti

      Thanks, Serena! My brain seems to work well in coming up with poetic phrases, which is handy! XO

Leave a Reply to Rita Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© 2024 Pen and Moon

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

%d bloggers like this: