This is a Photograph of Me

It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)

Margaret Atwood (1939 –

From AI – Margaret Atwood’s “This Is a Photograph of Me” is a haunting, deceptively simple poem that uses the metaphor of a blurry, old photo to explore themes of death, memory, and the marginalization of women. The speaker describes a landscape, only revealing in a chilling, parenthetical stanza that she has drowned and is submerged in the lake, appearing almost invisible to the viewer. 
… And is marginalization an issue?

A poem in two distinct parts … on the life of a person defined in words …

Plenty below the surface to consider, these are my words to invoke thinking   –

 
… the importance of nature to self
… on becoming water and light
… on being absorbed/lost in nature
… on being unrecognised as a woman
… on being a forgotten entity
… on history distorting, not knowing people
… on being identified with place
… on the emphasis of the importance of home
… on being there but unseen
… on wanting recognition
… on having a spiritual existence
… on connection

Do you ever see another person no matter how hard you look … and what does a person leave behind … what does the viewer conjure in the mind.