Posted in Poetry

Reset ~ a poem

Posted on by jillys2016


I reset
the chess set
this morning, six months
it sat mute
in the upstairs office, sent
there to avoid
weddings, parties of summer, autumn,
cold stone accusations
I ignored
each night passing
the door switching
off lights

I gathered  
the pieces set
them in crowds in the center
of the board, minglers
at a cocktail party
clusters of soldiers, royalty and clerics,
as though they
have something to talk
about over champagne
and cold fish

I reset
them this morning, lines facing
ready for battle wondering
if I remember
my first move
while spring threatens
to approach

© Jilly’s All Rights Reserved

Join us over a dVerse Poet’s Pub where Sarah has us considering Harbingers.

Author:

A wild soul writing poetry.

35 thoughts on “Reset ~ a poem”

  1. There’s an intensity here – I’m left wondering what has made the protagonist so…angry? Detached?…and wondering what that first move will be. Chess brings a whole load of connotations with it – the game with Death, the battle ground, that intense Thomas Crowne scene…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. This is such an intriguing poem, Jilly. I picture that chess set, and the narrator setting and resetting it. The clustering of pieces as though at a party, then a battle. I wonder about the backstory–and why spring seems to be threatening? (Not questions for you to answer, just my own wondering.)

    Like

    Reply

  6. When you reset the chess set, I have to wonder were you in the middle of a game with someone and things got heated and you both walked way from it? Maybe the chess set is the metaphor for being in a relationship limbo, where you don’t want to carry on from where it was before? I like this kind of poem because it opens up possibilities…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Ah, my poetic friend, your eyes for multiple possibilities makes you my ideal reader. THAT is exactly my intent; the reader completes the work of any poet and thus fulfills it. I am a Hirsch aficionado in my poetic philosophy. You have made my day 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. “Move me on to any black square / Use me anytime you want
    Just remember that the goal / Is for us all to capture all we want”

    Yours is better by far. “cold stone accusations / I ignored” The chess set or…? “clusters of soldiers, royalty and clerics, / as though they / have something to talk / about…” Not likely to see eye to eye, are they? “ready for battle wondering / if I remember / my first move / while spring threatens…” When is chess not all about chess…?

    Ah, poetry! Great poem, Jill!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. I read this poem as a metaphor for a relationship going through a difficult patch, Jill, with the chess set the only way of communicating, I especially like the image of chess pieces as ‘ minglers at a cocktail party… as though they have something to talk about over champagne and cold fish’.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. the chess set seems to have to rival for attention, closed up for so long, it still exercises power over the owner, from your poem i learn something new, that harbingers can threaten too.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment