“Seeking Purpose” by Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerPosted by Rattle
Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2019: Editor’s Choice
Image: “Bound” by Natalie Seabolt. “Seeking Purpose” was written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2019, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.
—Orison Swett Marden
There were no letters tucked in the trees today,
no handwritten notes tied with red string.
No epistles, no missives, no communiques.
Some days, a woman wishes the world
would be more direct, more intimate, would just tell her
her purpose, would spell it out in a language she knows.
Include sketches, clear directives. Write her name
on the envelopes so there can be no mistake.
Leave the letters in a place she will find them.
But no. Today, the only message in the trees
is snow. She tries to make meaning of it.
Laughs at the impulse. Reminds herself, Snow is snow.
Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “Maybe it’s that the photograph is so straightforward, but turning it into an image of what isn’t there was a brilliant choice that pushes the original content even further. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the universe really did send us messages this clear? But of course it doesn’t, a truth that now feels oddly empowering, thanks to the subtle tone of the poem. Let’s go out and make some meaning of our own.”
“Greetings Unanswered” by Joshua MartinPosted by Rattle
Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2019: Artist’s Choice
Image: “Bound” by Natalie Seabolt. “Greetings Unanswered” was written by Joshua Martin for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2019, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
Comment from the artist, Natalie Seabolt: “I chose ‘Greetings Unanswered’ because it speaks to a past that is worn and aged, a past that craves to be remembered, a past that has become letters with a hunger all their own. The poem’s language is hungry and wary of how past and present can switch places. The letters of the poem feel kin to those in my photograph—letters that exist in a dimension of urgency, lingering around the speaker’s presence whispering of their importance, but lost to those to whom they were delivered.”