Sunday, May 19, 2013
Edited and Introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine poet laureate.
Lewis Turco, who lives in Dresden Mills, is author of numerous poetry collections and The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, called “the poets’ Bible” since 1968. In today’s intriguing poem he offers the description of a house – or is it something more than a house?
The Habitation
By Lewis Turco
There is no way out.
Now the windows have begun
to cloud over: cobwebs, dust.
The stairs and floors are unstable –
the hours nibble the foundations.
In the bedrooms, sheets
have begun to yellow, spreads
to fray. Coverlets have worn
to the colors of late autumn,
thin as a draft sifting at the sill.
On the kitchen floor
crumbs and rinds lie recalling
the old feasts. In the larder
preserves rust among speckled jars;
the bins yawn; shadow sates the cupboards.
The fire has been damped
at the hearth: its bed of ash
sinks in pit-holes over brick.
The ceiling snows on the carpet –
Rejoice! Rejoice! The house is failing!
Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2007 by Lewis Turco. Reprinted from “Fearful Pleasures: The Complete Poems of Lewis Turco 1959-2007,” Star Cloud Press, 2007, by permission of Lewis Turco. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, special assistant to the Maine poet laureate, at poetlaureate@mainewriters.org or 228-8263.
Copyright ©2013 MaineToday Media, Inc.
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