#PhotoPoem with Image No. 19, Lantern in the Window, From My Multi-Generational New England Thriller “Queen”

**

Lantern in the Window
(breathing the light)

Light passes through glass sleeves from
the world outside, seemingly
stored
inside the hourglass-like guardian calmly
patiently
awaiting the night
when it too
will shine, passing its light
in a breath clearly seen
back through the glass.

© Felipe Adan Lerma

***

It’s been a few years since I wrote “Queen” and I’ve had a bit more time than my initial impulse as why I included each image in the story.

From the beginning the lantern in the window both marked a physical location in the story and symbolized something about the story.

In this case, partly via creating my photopoem, I think I now see more about that reflected meaning within the story.

One, the lantern does not need to be lit at night to reflect what’s happening around it. In broad daylight, it also stands vigil, watching the world through the glass.

Two, this reflected meaning of standing vigil for others describes several of the main adult characters, including some of the teens and young children depending on their role with a character younger than themselves, and even possibly one of the “bad guys” 🙂

How and when someone feels obliged or feels it necessary to protect another character is very much part of the overall story. But that doesn’t tell you much 🙂 I’d say both the good guy and bad guy adults will have that impulse.

But also true, and a different example of the kind of relationships I like exploring, is among the six young cousins under the care of two of the good guy adults.

The six cousins are comprised of three sets of siblings: two brothers, nine and ten; two sisters, tweens; and a brother and sister, 18 and 17 respectively. Within the 3 sets of siblings the older child is “usually” the lantern so to speak — though the oldest, Antone, 18, is a reluctant lantern wanting to be free as a firefly (smiles).

It’s when the balance of pairings among them is mixed up that I find the idea of a flickering lantern a good image 🙂 Like when Buzz the older of the two young brothers pairs with Simone, the oldest tween, to mislead a bad guy from their younger sister and younger brother, and end up in a cemetery. A very large cemetery!

Anyway, I found it fun and illuminating creating scenes like these, and still find them among my favorite type to write and re-read (smiles).

Here’s a tweet excerpt & image I posted awhile back —

Vermont Images Collection @FineArtAmerica https://t.co/VwPjnOL3ue 4 #thriller serial novel "Queen" +Excerpt 31/37 https://t.co/xpNTCc8neO pic.twitter.com/Ho7zEtvz6q

— Felipe Adan Lerma (@FelipeAdanLerma) May 6, 2017

And the lantern motif showed up again in the tweet-excerpt above!

I’ll confess I hadn’t connect that reference in the story yet. As I mentioned at the beginning after my photopoem, “…partly via creating my photopoem, I think I now see more about that reflected meaning (the lantern) within the story.”

Pretty amazing, I think, what this creative process is about! 🙂

Thanks so much for coming by! 

More Photopoems

More about Queen, my thriller novel

And more images also included in my book, Queen 😊

Adan

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Fine Art America (FAA) – https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/felipeadan-lerma.html