Message from Belle to J.P., 18 October 2010

Wondering where you've been - missing you looking in on my blog, the post with your Emily...

I hope everything's okay with you. I wanted to mention again how much I enjoyed your beautiful poems. It's funny, that night (in the wee hours of Monday morning) your Ofelia poem fused with an image of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes that I had seen a few days previously in connection with Hughes' poem, The Last Letter, about Sylvia's suicide - published for the first time in the last couple of weeks - that (evidently) was haunting me. I was in my friends' Brooklyn apartment and got up and in all my grogginess jotted down a few notes, that is thoughts, that formed in my head. I'm looking them over this morning, perhaps to post, perhaps not. I balk at the "prince of shadows" - I had woven in very much your phrase. Anyway, here are the words I jotted down that night:

clock ticks
water drips
I lie awake under a thin sheet
no blanket
I was Ophelia to his Prince of Shadows
Sylvia beams at the baby while
Ted smirks at the camera (who took the picture?)
he holds the baby, but that's not his focus
I guess Sylvia was an Ophelia too
and Ted the Prince of Shadows, already gone

I hope all is well with you. Thanks again for your beautiful poems (along with the haunting story of the fascinating Finnish poet, whose link you provided I did look up...)

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