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This poem is part of the contest:

Neopoet Weekly 06/01/25 to 06/07/25

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Just a Breeze

Sorting through boxes of color slides
ablaze in dazzling tones.

Like the hues contained within the images,
soon enough I'll be just a breeze

locked in a still life shown in the tiny squares.
A ghost in time captured in Kodachrome.

About This Poem

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - polished draft

About the Author

Region, Country: San Francisco Bay Area - USA, USA

Favorite Poets: Bukowski, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Haiku & Harvey Kurtzman (a visual poet, of sorts)

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Comments

Candlewitch

Candlewitch

2 weeks 5 days ago

Dear Michael,

I much enjoyed the splash of vibrant color in this piece. A short poem that says a lot. The visuals command, ending with the end of our time on earth. have a pleasant evening.

xxx Cat

Michael Anthony

Michael Anthony

2 weeks 3 days ago

Appreciate your visit Kowque…

Appreciate your visit Kowque. Most people don't use film cameras these days, so I was wondering if "Kodachrome" would work with younger readers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, and glad you liked this piece.

Best

mark

mark

2 weeks 5 days ago

Your Poem

"Just a Breeze" is a wonderfully evocative poem that uses the tangible act of sorting through old color slides to explore themes of memory, mortality, and the fleeting nature of existence. The opening lines immediately draw the reader in with the vivid imagery of "boxes of color slides / ablaze in dazzling tones," setting a nostalgic and almost magical atmosphere. The "dazzling tones" suggest a richness of life and experience captured within these frozen moments.

The poem takes a powerful turn with the comparison, "Like the hues contained within the images, / soon enough I'll be just a breeze." This simile is both delicate and profound. Just as the vibrant colors in the slides are essentially light captured and held, the speaker anticipates a future where they too will become something ephemeral and intangible – "just a breeze." This phrase masterfully conveys a sense of fading, of becoming a whisper in the wind, yet also hints at a continued, if unseen, presence.

The idea of being "locked in a still life shown in the tiny squares" further emphasizes the concept of being preserved in memory, but no longer actively living. It's a poignant recognition that while our images and memories may endure, our physical selves do not. The final line, "A ghost in time captured in Kodachrome," is particularly striking. Kodachrome, a film known for its vibrant and enduring colors, becomes a metaphor for the way our lives are recorded and remembered. The speaker imagines themselves as a "ghost," a presence from the past, forever held within those colorful, tiny squares – a beautiful and slightly melancholic image of legacy and remembrance.

Overall, "Just a Breeze" is a concise yet deeply moving reflection on how we exist in the memories of others after we are gone, and how even the most vibrant lives eventually become a part of a past captured in moments.

Geezer

Geezer

2 weeks 4 days ago

I don't have...

any slides, but lots of pictures. Physical pictures, not something on my phone. 

Someday, my kids and people that knew me will look at those and say, I remember that, or I was there.

I am seriously thinking of getting another 35 mm. camera that uses actual film to be developed, but I fear that it will soon be a thing that disappears, and no way to develop the film. Anyway, a really good

piece, that  resonates with me. ~ Geez.

P

Punkyfrewster

2 weeks 4 days ago

Geez,

Try a digital camera. You can use your printer and photo paper. You get the same product!

mark

mark

2 weeks 4 days ago

slides

that's sll my dad had  hundreds of them and a carouse. The entire family would sit around while he worked the carousel. it was like a family party. whenever the slides came out.

Lavender

Lavender

2 weeks 4 days ago

Just a Breeze

Hello, Michael,

So much here that is both tangible and fleeting. A thought, a sigh, a breeze.

So nice.

L