In Another’s Shoes
penny steps into one of my mornings
thank you, penny, for your text message from the red line—dotty
penny’s wake-up alarm
goes off today at 415,
not her usual practice
by a long shot,
tribecca film festival
in new york city
as her spur.
she drags
out of bed
still heavy
with sleep,
asking herself
more than once
as she gets ready
to go,
how does dotty
do it, wake early
every day
to walk
before sunrise?
but then
she herself
steps outside
and sees the moon
[waning,
gibbous,
not yet set],
hears the birds
[song sparrows,
northern cardinals,
american robins],
notices how
otherwise quiet it is
[only her footfalls,
her breath,
a wind whisper].
she hops
on the red line train
at 515—
the first of the day
to depart,
she notes,
very satisfied.
new world!,
she thinks,
enlivened
[inside
this unexpected
predawn poem].
—dotty seiter
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6.75 x 7.5″; watercolor on paper
color swatches after Kata Hull
2026
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Notes about poem and art:
• “penny steps into” was such fun to write, presenting as it did several engaging challenges and many revisions, some of which involved working with a metapoetic slant.
• This watercolor work-in-progress involves my own stepping-into. A friend sent me a postcard image of an oil-and-mixed-media-on-paper painting by Kata Hull entitled What Remains that had me instantly itching to pick up a brush. When I feel that kind of itch, I often paint a “copy” as a way to kickstart an exploration of the concept behind the piece. Here I did just that—imitated in order to generate the possible start of a series inquiry. I’ll share the fuller story of this painting’s journey in later posts. In the interim, this photo captures what I watercolor-painted over the course of my June vacation. I set up a tiny impromptu studio space beside a window in our rental overlooking Norton Lake in Maine, and sat intermittently each day to paint, often with windows open to fresh air and breeze. This start went on to evolve further after I returned home, but I am grateful for the embodied souvenir posted above of those days on the lake.
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7 responses to “In Another’s Shoes”
I love your poem about Penny stepping into your shoes! We find a new world when we try something new.
Love love love the checkerboard and I’m looking forward to learning the rest of the journey of this painting. The variations in the neutrals…and the fabulous color choices and placements is spot on. Or maybe I should say square on!
MaryAnn, I’m smiling at your appreciation. This poem provided just the kind of pull and challenge I thrive on; it kept me at the ‘drawing board,’ so to speak, for a good long happy time. Penny tried something new, and I tried something new in reaching for words to tell the story.
That checkerboard was also a huge delight. Thank you for noting the variation in the neutrals, the color choices, and their placements—precisely what had me enjoying myself from start to finish. And, yes, ‘square on’ is a great descriptor here!!
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First had to learn more about “meta poetic slang”. Then with my second read understood,although you gave the clues in the title and description! A beautiful play on words and contexts. Keep telling myself that I also should kick myself out of bed ,maybe not at 4 but 5 would be a good start.
Enjoyed your color block painting. Not familiar with Kata Hull but will look her up. So much to learn with color studies.
First of all, did you look up “metapoetic slang” or “metapoetic slant”? Either way, I may have overreached myself by using the term metapoetic slant hahaha. By metapoetic I meant that I told a story about a friend who woke and walked outdoors early, a daily practice of my own which often becomes the source of my poems, and I told the story as both my poem and “hers.” By slant, I meant no more than than that the metapoetics were the angle from which I undertook this piece of writing. In revisiting a quick look at what slant is in poetry, it can mean much more than what I meant it to be!
Have I thoroughly confused you yet??! Thanks for taking the time to appreciate my efforts and see “a beautiful play on words and contexts.”
Always so much to learn from color studies! They are a magnetic force with me : )
Love the metapoetic words! I could FEEl that sense of a new world unfolding in the wee hours of the morning. Beautiful. And skewing the masters, as I call it, is such a fun and productive way to warm up to creating something “in the style of” someone whose work you admire! It has been a long while since I’ve done that, and now you have made ME “itch” to do it, too! xoxo
oooo, fun to know that you could FEEL that sense of a new world unfolding in the wee hours, and that you give thumbs up to the metapoetic! Thanks.
Oh yeah, “skewing the masters” and “in the style of”—two great ways to convey what I was aiming to say. And, ha!, you’re it—now YOU’ve got the itch!!!
xoxo
