For all the poems in this Two Sylvias Press Advent Calendar challenge for 2023, visit my musings here.
Prologue: This is a 31 day event that helps poets and authors all over to pen down 31 new poems in the month of December (2023). Every day we can open the calendar for that day to read about the prompt for that day. Then let your imagination fly to infinity with your thoughts and voice.
For Day 17 the Prompt given to us was to write a poem using a well-known portrait allowing the subject in the portrait to make observations or comment on the current world. However when I picked this portrait it inspired me to write a tale instead. Here is my take.
I picked this painting Woman with the Lamp by Sawlaram Haldankar, an Indian artist, an accomplished painter in both watercolors and oils focusing mainly on portraits. I got inspired by the painting to make a tale rather than ponder over questions.
Prompt 17: Small Glimmer of Hope Behind Strong Hands
Hope can be as simple as a lending hand to as complex
As throwing a beacon of light across the furious sea.
Yet a small lamp hidden behind the web of phalanx
Shows a path to so many enslaved human species.
She walks with this hope in her hand under the hidden
Stairway; crossing the bridge and into the tunnel.
And the end she unlocks the door of the harsh prison
And out pour the slaves like water gushing through a funnel.
Hands raised she calms them with just a small smile;
A nod to assert her support; walking back to the outside
She gently prods and pushes them into the aisle
Of the long ship resting on the dock by the seaside.
Silently they board the vessel as the bid adieu
To their savior still holding the small glimmer
Of light looking like a beacon of hope anew
And leave the docks toward a world better.
She walks back to the tunnel; crossing the bridge
And under the hidden stairway back into the castle.
She puts the lamp on the table paying homage
To her idol and gets ready for another day of tussle.
And here is the portrait that inspired the tale.
Galavant Reflections 