Introduction

I started a course recently at the City Lit, in writing and photography. I didn’t stick with the course, because I realised after one session that (a) there was a greater focus on poetry than I realised there would be, and (b) I didn’t think the benefits I would get from the course would compensate for the investment of time. That’s not a reflection on the course, which seems excellent, but on the realisation that I actually already knew a lot about the subject and that I’d overstretched myself by signing up to several other courses running during the same period!

As perhaps you may have inferred from my opening sentence, I don’t write poetry. My days of doing so have been over for several eons. However, the first homework we were set, and which I completed and submitted, was to write a poem inspired by a photograph. I thought, as I have a series called PhotoPrompt (note to self: post another one soon!), in which readers are invited to use the photos for inspiration, I ought to put my pen where my camera is (or something like that) and share my own efforts.

Well, here goes, and I hope you enjoy it, and perhaps even find some merit in it.

Solitude

I remember the quiet time in the city,

Walking from a café to a bookshop, And then to another bookshop.

I remember the soundtrack of distant traffic and, Closer, the clanking of crockery and cutlery.

I remember a photo of two friends 

Sitting in a lonely café while the relentless rain drenched the passers-by.

I remember sitting in an otherwise empty restaurant when I should have been at an awards evening.

Bliss!

And I remember the solitude of being in a crowd.

Notes

I based this poem on (a) the mood that the photo conveyed to me and (b) an Oulipo technique used by a writer called Georges Perec in which he starts every sentence with the words “I remember”.