Forgotten Fields

I officially started developing the “Shepherd Girl” poetic sketch today. The original draft consisted of several rough stanzas that outlined the substance of the poem—ideas and rhymes not fully formed, which I put in a coherent order a few days ago. From these, I have now extracted three promising stanzas, the framework of the poem. At its heart, “Shepherd Girl” is a glimpse into my mother’s childhood, wrestling beauty from the harsh realities of her youth (gleaned from many a tale in bittersweet nostalgia).