"This Is a Photograph of Me" by Margaret Atwood

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.)

Source of the text – Margaret Atwood, Selected Poems 1965-1975.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976, p. 8.

TJB: Photo of invisible things. First, we see the photograph (poem?) as blurry, then meaning slowly emerges; then we begin to see the invisible.