Nordic Lens - Photo Challenge Submission: Reflections

Not A Write Off - Writing Prompt Submission: Echos

Beth Kempton - #tinywinterpoem Day 2: Ripple

For the Nordic Lens challenge, I selected this photo, taken Dec 2022, of a partially iced over, man-made lake in the foothills of a mountain - a place I’ve been connected to my whole life. When I then saw

’s post about combining his photo challenge with

Abigail Mann

’s three minute writing challenge Echos, I visualized myself there, lakeside, thinking of echos, and this poem came to me. (Full disclosure, I did some minor editing and came up with the final formatting later that day. Substack Notes doesn’t seem to like multiple blank lines, though, so I’ve added periods to create blank lines.) Coincidentally, it also fits with Day 2 of

Beth Kempton

’s #tinywinterpoem prompt, Ripple. I hope you enjoy my combination.

Lakeside Reverberations by Lindsay Hartley

Echos

of my past

self swirl around me,

lost but not quite gone,

found but not fully here.

A mountain of memories -

some shining brightly,

others drowning

in pain.

.

Still

I prevail,

rising from the deep

to find my footing again

on the earth, in my heart

with my roots in

This life.

Here.

Now.

With less

than I dreamed,

but more than I feared;

Vaster than I fathomed.

Grateful for the chance

to continue on

again

.

and

.

again

.

.

and

.

.

again.