A Puzzling Picture

INTRO: I started writing poetry in 2011 while travelling around Australia in a motorhome. I wrote this poem while in Western Australia, reflecting on my struggle to accept the gift I had of writing poetry. Back then, I thought it was an interesting but frivolous gift. What good could become of it? when I told people that I write poetry, they would look at me strangely. Why couldn’t I have the gift of writing stories or painting? Despite how I felt about my gift, it kept pouring out of me. I didn’t share my poetry with anyone outside of close family members. I was too shy and sensitive to potential criticism.

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At that time in my life, I was a mature-aged woman, I had no higher education past high school, I had been a full-time mother for over a decade with limited work experience outside of motherhood. My two daughters were now adults living independently. I was at a turning point in my life.

Who was I now without children at home? What was my profession? Who was I as a poet? Was poetry just a hobby for me or would it become something more than just a pastime? I had no idea. I had no plan for it because I knew nothing about what to do with my poetry other than letting it pour out of me onto paper. I had no idea how fulfilling sharing my poetry would become for me. This poem is the first of three poems that I wrote when I first started thinking about sharing my poetry with the world. Beverley Joy

PODCAST – A Puzzling Picture

I look at a picture of me on the wall

And ask “Who is a failure in the eyes of the world?

I have not achieved financial success

Uni degrees or personal finesse.

I observe life differently

I keep to myself, sitting quietly

Thinking, contemplating, observing

Recording my findings in poetry writing.

A preoccupation considered by many

As “off with the fairies” silly and lazy

The strange hobby of writing