Poetry Revisited

During a visit to Levering Orchard, I spoke with one of the owners about his childhood memories of home, a house that now stands empty and in disrepair, yet a dominate fixture overlooking the orchard. It seemed to speak to me.

Red House Talking

heat scared twisted tin
metal remains of the shelter of generations
once marking the boundary between security, sky
and seasons' harsh torments of ice and wind
once shielding mother and child and keeping
home hearth's warmth within

sentinel timbers stand charred
remnants of hard taught lessons
essential knowings of words and deed
those shadows of learning that walk with us stand un-daunting
proclaiming our way through life's course
holding us to right of way

pane-less windows black and lost
tell of now absent eyes peering outward
watching for familiar faces and tracing memories
in winter's vapor smudged glass and speaking again
of curtains drawn tightly muffling
the magic giggles of life long love and randy youth

now the boundaries of roof and wall
yield openly, freeing lives long bound here
as prolific gaps grasp not even nature's breeze
but only to have it dance delightfully
resting on my mind, heart and dream
then leave wafting on, free.

-Theo