Remember the other day I had asked if anyone was willing to free write using my photos as prompt? Well Charlotte over at This path of Lilly’s volunteered to write and I’m so happy she did. Because she took this photo, that I took last week on the way home, and changed it into a whole new story with her fantastic perspective! Thank you SO much Charlotte!
Read on..
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What are you doing?
Oh, just looking at some pictures my friend in India sent me. I said Iâd do a guest post on her blog and she sent three of her photos for me to use as writing prompts. Sheâs a photographer, by the way.
OohâŚexciting. I had no idea your fame had grown to the level of making guest appearances on othersâ blogs.
(Laughing) Iâm not famous! Sheâs one of four people who read my blog. Actually, Iâm a little nervous and having a hard time coming up with something to write about. Pressure, ya know?
Oh come on. Since when have you been at a loss for words? (He pokes me in the side, teasingly.)
I laugh and click through the pictures again, waiting for a brilliant idea to hit me.
He watches as I contort my face into each one of my six different versions of âthinking face.â
Still nothing.
He rolls onto his side and rests his head on his fist.
Oh wow! From this angle, that picture looks really cool! Overexposed or something.
I tilt my laptop to see what heâs seeing. The contrast has drastically increased, making the trees look as if theyâve been x-rayed and the sun, a defined circle of brightness with several outer rings, each growing darker the farther away from the sun they are.
Oh yeah, I like that. You know what it makes me think of? Ripples in a pond. Like someone tossed a stone into the sky.
See? Now youâre coming up with ideas. Thatâs my girl.
Yeah but I canât write about that. Maybe a poem. I wrote a poem once that had to do with dreams and water and ripplesâŚLady of the Night, that was the title.
He gave me a funny, questioning look.
Lady of the night??
Not like that. A lady of the night is usually used in reference to a street walker, a prostitute. But she does her thing in the darkness of night because itâs a sin, forbidden- looked down on by society. The woman in the poem was similar because what she did at night was to think of someone other than the man she was lying beside.
Oh. So what does that have to do with ripples?
âintrusions upon tranquility
like a stone tossed in a lagoon
breed waking ripples of nostalgia
lapping at my mindâ
The dreams she has at night ripple into the day, where they donât belong. Where they should not be. But because when she chooses to throw the stone into the water at night, she must endure the consequences throughout the day.
I see. Thatâs why they say to be careful about your thoughts.
I suppose so. Itâs like that quote I loved from the movie, Inception. Remember? I had you pause the movie so I could write it down for my collection.
âWhatâs the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?
An idea. ResilientâŚhighly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain itâs almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed- fully understood- that sticks, right in there somewhere.â
So if the sun was the place the stone, or idea, was tossed and the âringsâ radiating outward, lighting up the entire sky are the result of that idea, what the hell was the thought that created the sun and who would have had such an enormous idea?
I think itâs the same cumulative thought or idea by millions of people.
And what would that be, Dear?
Easy. What was my poem really about? What did she dare to dream of at night when it was safe to dream? What was her deepest desire?
Love.
by
Charlotte Parr
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PS: If you would like to write similar guest posts, do email me đ
gossamer dreams 