Sanaa here aka adashofsunny with yet another round of Poetics, today we are going to contemplate the artwork of John Atkinson Grimshaw. Grimshaw was born in Leeds in 1836 and was largely self-taught. He initially had a secure job with the Great Northern Railway but eventually abandoned it to pursue painting. His decision was risky, but he became commercially successful and one of the most distinctive British painters of the Victorian era.
For today’s Poetics, I would like you all to choose ONE of the paintings above and to write a poem inspired by it. You can write an ekphrastic poem or simply take the title as a springboard or both. The choice is yours.
I have walked this road before, though never in this lifetime.
The stones remember footsteps my mind has long forgotten, and moonlight gathers in their cracks like pieces of another life.
Behind the wall, a window burns gold.
Someone waits there— or once did.
I cannot tell which.
The trees stand stripped of summer, black fingers combing through a silver-green sky, while shadows move beside me without making any sound.
I should be afraid.
Instead, I feel strangely known.
Perhaps there are roads we do not choose, roads that recognise us before we recognise them.
Perhaps memory lives deeper than the mind—
in the pull toward an unknown doorway, in a place that feels like home when we have never been there, in the certainty that someone has whispered our name just beyond hearing.
So I keep walking.
Not toward the house, nor away from it,
but toward that place where moonlight touches memory and the boundary grows thin.
Very niceand beautiful poem, Maggie! I like the idea of finding comfort in a past life or continual path. I could see this being turned into a song by you. Wonderful writing, again! 💜
Thank you so much, Ange. 💗
That’s one of my favourite parts too. I loved the idea of moonlight becoming the place where memory and something beyond memory almost touch — where the boundary between then and now grows thin.
The first-person perspective drew me into your poem, Maggie, so I was walking the road with you. I especially love the way the moonlight gathers in the cracks of stones ‘like pieces of another life’ and the ‘trees stand stripped of summer, black fingers combing through a silver-green sky’ – great use of colour! I also love the eeriness created by ‘moonlight touches memory and the boundary grows thin’ and ‘the woman I once was walks toward me’.
Thank you so much, Kim. 💜 I love that you felt as though you were walking the road with me — that’s exactly the feeling I hoped the first-person perspective would create. There was something about Grimshaw’s silver-green light and that solitary figure that made the scene feel less like a place being visited and more like a place being remembered. The eeriness seemed to grow naturally from there.
I’m delighted those particular images stayed with you.
Thank you so much, Sanaa. 💗 Your beautiful prompt and Grimshaw’s painting immediately pulled me into that dark, haunting atmosphere. There was something about that silver-green moonlight and the solitary figure that made me imagine a road between memory and another lifetime. I’m delighted you enjoyed it, and thank you for such an inspiring prompt.
Thank you Björn 💜
A walk down memory lane indeed — although this particular lane seems to wander a little further back than one lifetime.
I loved the feeling that the road itself remembered the traveller, even when she couldn’t quite remember the road.
“Almost like a dream” is exactly the feeling I had while writing it — that strange space where memory, imagination and perhaps another lifetime begin to blur together.
Thank you so much, Helen! 🥰💜
That painting seemed to invite me to dig a little deeper. What began as a walk down a moonlit road somehow became a journey through memory, identity and perhaps even another lifetime. 🌙
I’m so glad it spoke to you.
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