Robbie’s Inspiration – Thursday Doors and Esther Chilton’s writing challenges #poetry #photography

I chose two photographs from Dan’s writing challenge gallery here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2025/

Esther’s challenge this week is Fictional Worlds. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/04/30/writing-prompts-63/

I think both these poems relate to fictional worlds.

Picture caption: A large spacious room with a door at the end. Picture provided by Kerfe from https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/

I don’t know why this picture prompted the poem below. Somehow, when I looked at it, the picture reminded me of a period when the firm I work for went through a bad patch and there was a big restructuring that occurred including the vacating on the smaller of two buildings. I remember walking through the nearly empty second building where I was one of the few remaining staff. It was horribly creepy with all the empty rooms with doors at the far end.

Crossing the Empty Room

I stand at the door, looking in

Knowing I must cross the floor

My footsteps echoing on the tiles

The sound bouncing off pictureless walls

An empty room, stripped of its essence

All signs of its purpose removed

Dirty marks and picture hooks

All that remain of an earlier time

When occupants gave it life

I take a deep breath, move forward

The temperature is cold, the air dry

The ghosts of previous employees drift

Across the vast and empty floor

Dancing the steps of disgruntlement

The room grows, seeming to elongate

As I pass through the hostile crowd

The retrenched sucking on bitter lemon

The leavers regretting hasty decisions

They tap my slopping shoulders

Breathing memories into my reluctant ears

Bequeathing me their despair and vexation

At the unexpected turn of events

That derailed the smooth flow of their days

Destroyed their faith in ‘the system’

I reach the exit, yanking open the door

It slips from my sweaty fingers

Banging closed on the disappointing past

I walk on, cloaked in disillusionment

Picture caption: Picture of a flying goat in a bright room at a slight angle. Provided by Teagan Geneviene from https://teagansbooks.com/

Hey diddle diddle (twisted nursery rhyme)

Hey diddle diddle

A boy with a fiddle

What a terrible rasping noise

Horrified by the sound, the goat found herself skyward bound

In search of serenity and inner poise

And now a couple of pictures from my recent trip to Pilanesberg National Park. These were taken at Black Rhino Lodge.

Picture caption: a vervet monkey. I took this photograph directly up into the tree the monkey was sitting in.

Picture caption: the same vervet monkey. He was a little further away in this shot.