Our Spiritual Journey theme for November is Doubt. You can read my prose reflection “Embracing Doubt” here (posted yesterday). Below is my poetic musing.
Where Doubt Lives
Doubt lives
between my shoulder blades
borne like a beast of burden.
Doubt lives
ignored, a nagging list
carried in an overstuffed purse.
Doubt is buried
at the bottom of my closet
in a box of I-don’t-know-
what-to-do-with-these.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Doubt sits
like a trendy coffee-table display,
a conversation starter best picked over
with a glass of wine–
then dismissed (the weekend approaches).
Doubt waits
in an exquisite dish…
Fragile! Handle with care!
..set where we pause, stare…
Yep, still there…
closer than it appears.
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
It’s Poetry Friday!
Laura Purdie Salas has the round up
this weekend. Join us!
Patricia Franz writes picture books and poetry. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
The reasons we need poetry—grief, love, wonder, awe, loss, spirit, justice, beauty… doubt—All that we carry. Carry on!
Yes!!!! Your poem really captured, with such surprising and resonant images, the doubt that is always there…”closer than it appears.” Thank you!
Perfect poem to go with the photograph!
Your ending is perfect Patricia! As one who suffers from self-doubt all. the. time., I can relate to your wonderful images. Thank you.
Patricia, morning opens with my reading of your articulate poem on doubt. It shares the reality of doubt and how it manifests itself in our lives. The ending and the photograph brings poem together on an ordinary day. I shall ponder all of this and make sure that I handle doubt with care because it can be haunting. I think you should link your prose piece of writing with this poem. They are a good way to pause on the subject of doubt.
Oof. I’m reading THE HANDMAID’S TALE (belatedly, I know…) and this poem gives me shivers.
The waver of our thoughts shown perfectly, Patricia, wishing it could always be “out of sight out of mind”!
So true! Love your metaphors and the overall tone and pacing of the poem perfectly capture those nagging feelings of doubt. Final stanza nails it!
I love this poem about doubt, especially the stanza where it’s buried in the closet, out of sight, out of mind. That’s where doubt needs to stay. What a great topic for our spiritual journey pondering along with poetry to keep the emotions in check. Thanks for hosting this month.
Oh, this is good. This is a poem I wish I had written. All those places…my doubts live there too. Well done.
Beautiful, Patricia. I need my ever-growing, always-changing doubts. They keep me human, I think.
What a lovely poem. I like the line about doubt living between shoulders.
Wow, Patricia! I think this is a keeper. It’s so relatable. And that ending! Whew!
Thanks!