The Price by Stuart Henson

How many of us can say with absolute sincerity that we haven’t felt dissatisfied with our lives and our achievements from time to time?

We might never have the lives we see in magazines, with the perfect kitchen and immaculate jaw-dropper of a spouse. And yet the open secret, the secret we all conveniently forget as soon as it becomes time to start pitying ourselves, is that the people in the magazines don’t, either – because in real life, nothing is perfect.

People get messy, and things go missing. But my purpose here is not to tell you that your life is actually the best you can hope for. No, the way this poem will improve things is by encouraging you to evaluate your life sensibly: to ask yourself how far your life reflects your own priorities and choices, and whether they have ultimately been the right ones for you.

The Price

Sometimes it catches when the fumes rise up
among the throbbing lights of cars, or as
you look away to dodge eye-contact with
your own reflection in the carriage-glass;
or in a waiting-room a face reminds you
that the colour supplements have lied
and some have pleasure and some pay the price.

Then all the small securities you built
about your house, your desk, your calendar
are blown like straws; and momentarily,
as if a scent of ivy or the earth
had opened up a childhood door, you pause,
to take the measure of what might have been
against the kind of life you settled for.

Write Your Medicine Prompt:

To start, choose an image that catches your attention, evokes a rumbling of emotion. You may know why, maybe not. Sometimes it is writing itself that will help you see why that image resonates.

It can be an image in your imagination, a pic from your cell phone, or a random picture from a magazine.

The idea is to explore, in poetry, how this image makes you feel. Often the image that comes to mind or captures your attention is speaking to you, represents a part of you that wants to be expressed. In this context, writing is the deepest form of listening. 

Here is my image:

Here is my poem:

Like the wave
A memory of a dream
Swimming the depths
Surrounded with whales
I am afraid
I feel free

What is your image and poem?