Woman As Window Shade

Hello Poets,

Thank you for posting the forum early, Todd.  My birthday is the last Friday of November, and I might plead for critical mercy if I posted then.  I'm off work today at the end of a long weekend.  Monday is not a jolly day for most of the world, but here I am regardless.

I'm worried about the brevity of this poem.  Punctuation is bothering me in the last 4 lines.  As always, I welcome criticism.  If you tell me you loathe the poem, I know you mean that in the most constructive way.

WOMAN AS WINDOW SHADE

Lower your shade
Carefully.
Preserve your privacy.
You must be safely shuttered,
Tucked away, secure, unseen.
Draw the shade
Carefully
To meet the sill,
Lest it flap and clatter,
Roll and snap and coil tightly overhead,
Revealing everything.

Karen,  We don't think like that!  We welcome all poems even if we don't always understand them.  Especially the ones Todd sends!!  With that said, why not change the title--"Behind the window" or "Woman behind the window."The first one would be generiac and fit anyone. The first one would not identify it as solely a woman, but the second one would.  This would help not over use shade as Todd pointed out.  You get the point about not over using a word when it's not necessary.  On the other hand, "draw the shade --  lower the shade" are part of what you would expect of a shade, therefore, necessary.  I think a comma after "snap" would show a list of pairs a little better and would solve the problem of punctuation.  Brevity is not a bad thing. Good poem with a good message to anyone, not just women.

Dennis, you're killin' me! I assume everyone has the same inner critic I have: Brilliant! Boring! Brilliant! Boring! Brilliant! Boring!

An interesting point you make ... I have never tried to write from a generic point of view.  I've only done it accidentally.  More to consider!  It's hard for me to picture a man standing in my shoes in a poem.  I can barely imagine another woman doing so.  Still I keep throwing things out in the yard and to see if anybody or anything comes to feed. 

I made a change in the title after Todd's suggestions, which I hope will help.  And I'm still duking it out with the commas in the last few lines.

Karen,  you are using the shade as a vehicle, great. I've experienced  the slap and roll, too. It has a greater depth about the inner person, you've found that, too. I feel the openness you allude to and could liken it to the rolled up window shade. (here is where I think--why couldn't I have written that.)  You don't know who will read it or how it will touch the reader.  True, it may be a real incident in your life, but whose to say it didn't have the same effect on someone else. This is where the reader thinks, Wow, how could she know!  I like it because the exposure is real and sudden.  Dennis

to get my comments to the right place.  Karen, please read under Comments where Todd wrote.  My computer and I are not happy with each other right now.   Sorry if this puts you out.

My computer doesn't show Todd's critique!  I wonder why?  Karen, don't look to me for punctuation.  That's not my forte'.  I like this poem absent the last word!  Try reading it that way.  And I read it with a title of "anyone" which lets my mouth become the window shade.  "Sometimes what I want to be gets all mixed up with what others see."  I like the sudden violence of the shade going wild jumping out of a quiet image.  The repetition doesn't bother me although you could pare the poem down a little by using some generics but it is easy to read as is.  Well done.  Keep throwing it out there.  Dewell

I accidentally started another thread on this poem.  Apologies sent.

Todd