Roberta Writes – d’Verse: A haunting, Thursday Doors & Sunday Stills

d’Verse – A Haunting

Melissa’s challenge is to write a poem for an artwork prompt. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/10/20/a-haunting/

Svetlana Telets, Rain Woman (1996)

Pelting down

in hard, icy bullets

sheets of water

distorting

elongating

shredding fog

transforming tendrils

into shrieking banshees

swooping and circling

forlorn chimney pots

ripping at streaming hair

flowing black rivulets

while beating in anguish

at their broken hearts

***
Cowering behind

buffering door

child stands

ears covered

small, cold hands

blocking sound

holding back fear

desperate not to disturb

mother, who lies

prostrate with fever

oblivious to

devious deceptions

of storm filled night

Edvard Munch, The Dead Mother (1899)

Thursday Doors

For Dan’s Thursday Doors I’m sharing some of my photographs of doors inside Chateau de Chambord in the Loire Valley in France. You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/10/22/more-october-doors/

This first photograph is of Chateau de Chambord on the inside as the photograph was taken inside the courtyard.

Picture caption: Chateau de Chambord from the courtyard

The following photographs are doors inside the chateau.

Sunday Stills

Terri is back from her travels and is hosting Sunday Stills. You can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/10/18/sunday-stills-monthly-color-challenge-colors-of-lava-and-black/

Terri’s topic this week is colours of lava and black. I am sharing some of my photographs from inside the Sudwala Caves in South Africa.

This is what Wikipedia says about these caves:

The Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga, South Africa, are set in Precambrian dolomite rock, which was first laid down about 2.8 billion years ago. The caves themselves formed about 240 million years ago. They are one of the oldest caves in the world.

Picture caption: TC and I in front of Samson’s Pillar inside the Sudwala caves

46 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – d’Verse: A haunting, Thursday Doors & Sunday Stills”

  1. The stalactite formations have an apt name ‘KFC’ 😀. Your poems perfectly described the paintings and went well together. The lady in the first painting looks positively scary. Munch’s painting says so much. Lovely photos! Have a great weekend, Robbie.

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  2. Very evokative and beautiful poems and the paintings are wonderful. I have to admit Edvard Munch’s, The Dead Mother, is very powerful. It certainly delivered its message. The photos of Chateau de Chambord and the cave are great and fun to look at.

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  3. Weaving together such powerful artwork-inspired poetry with stunning doors and ancient caves is brilliant. My personal experience with caves is not that much but we have cave temples which I visited. They were painted 1500 years ago with Buddhism, Jainism and Hiduism influence. They have UNESCO heritage tag and were forgotten for more than 6-700 years until discovered by John Smith in 1819. Ajanta and Ellora caves were the most fascinating for me of all other caves I’ve visited. There are other caves which were carved with paintings before middle ages in South India. Well the beauty in the exploration is that art found its place in some very unusual space. Thank you for Caves-photographs Roberta 😊

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  4. Caves are intriguing and some can be difficult and dangerous to explore. Your photos are great. I see on Wikipedia that the Sudwala Caves were inhabited by early humans more than 2 million years ago.

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  5. Thanks for sharing this poem, Robbie, Your imagery, as usual, evokes feelings, and again, I love your photographs.

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  6. Thanks for sharing your poem, Robbie. Your imagery, as usual, evokes feelings, and again, I love your photographs.

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