You may remember me telling you about the writers group I started recently – Imagine, Write, Inspire.
We have such a lovely group and every week we do different challenges in order to get our creative minds working. The nice thing about the group is that it is both supportive and motivating without any judgement.
Today, I posted a photograph of an old lady and asked everyone to write something based on the emotions the image evoked. For some that is a poem, others a short piece of fiction.
If you would like to join the group (I should point out it’s free!) please let me know. All are welcome.
Here is my 60 second piece of fiction, inspired by the photograph. I hope you enjoy.
Carmel x
“She” by Carmel Harrington
Every line on her face a roadmap to the life she has lived. Unshed tears glisten in her tired eyes that are windows to both the joy and sorrow she has witnessed in her 88 years.
Her bones are weary. She sits down gratefully on a stool by the kitchen window. All of the big moments in her life happened in this very room.
Closing her eyes for a moment she pulls from her memory bank the voices of her family – her parents, her brothers and sisters, laughing, teasing, living. She watches her Mama kneading bread as her Papa shares his wisdom with his children around the large round kitchen table.
She opens her eyes, sighing, running her gnarled arthritic hand along the weathered surface of the table. Her family are all gone now and she is alone. The lone keeper of memories and secrets that seemed to matter years ago, but now are meaningless. She misses them all with every fibre in her body.
She longs for that sweet sleep of dreams.
She is ready to die.
Fabulously evocative Carmel!
Thank you Catherine. She has such an amazing face doesn’t she? So much character. Was fun letting my mind wander.
I love finding captions to my photos in Flickr and I’m thinking of using this as a springboard to get myself back in the habit of writing, even if it’s just a Dear Diary sort just for my own eyes. I know writers who tell me they have write every day no matter what it is, and I think it would be good for me to write even short pieces about photos – as a crutch/motivator/stimulator. I suppose writing is like exercise too, you have to practise. Wish me luck!
That’s a great idea. I have to say that the more I write the easier it becomes. Good luck Cath.