Prompt #139 A Moment Unexpected

  
A Moment Unexpected
We Write Poems:
  
I was talking with a friend last week about her situation with her husband’s health and she was describing an all too familiar scene (familiar because I witnessed it myself so many many times).

Her husband, mostly because of failing health, continually falls asleep in her presence.  Sometimes his head is on his chest even at the dinner table.  She was describing the literal, physical aspect of what she saw and, of course, the emotional response that she feels as she witnesses her high school sweetheart and one true love aging beyond his years and much before his time.

This might seem a bit depressing but the prompt itself is not meant to be that at all.  This is just illustrative of the setting we’d like you to consider and write about in your poem.

Here’s the key.  How often do we happen upon someone we care about when they aren’t aware of our presence?  Write your poem of such a moment to both describe the physical elements and your own emotional experience of that scene.

While it is not a rule, selecting a moment with someone you love or care deeply about would be a more provocative relationship to observe and write about than just some casual “other” person.  And yes, the other person can be whomsoever, be they child or parent or spouse or as you wish.  The feeling evoked is whatever it is, happy or sad or whatever you felt.  Perhaps a child or partner falling asleep, their head leaning into you.  Perhaps a parent, ill and asleep in bed, you alone in the room with them.  Perhaps a spouse making a meal, unaware of your observation of that moment.  You’ve many possibilities to notice and write about for your poem.
      ~Julie
  
Come back to leave a link to your poem next Wednesday when you see our second follow-up post called, It’s Post Your Poems Day!  If you have questions about We Write Poems and our prompt-and-poem process, or if you are new here at WWP, please read our about page.