A country road you've never been on can sometimes take you home.


Homecoming

This house has been abandoned
For longer than I can remember.
Who lived here I've never known.
Over the years I've seen it falling

Into itself so far and no more, some
Strength of age that we have shared.
Or perhaps it's only the stubbornness
That comes too with enough years.

There is no courage in that - holding
On to those last timbers and joists
That still frame what we once were,
Understanding the fragility of facades.

Only two walls lean where the house
Once stood; the split-rail fence falling
And following into the frost-heaved
Ground the lives it once had stood for.

But nearby a rusty pump handle
Is poised in mid-air, and there's fog
Flowing over the sides of the well
And I can taste that age-old thirst.

I drink my fill, and it feels like home.




Poetry by countryfog
Read 409 times
Written on 2011-02-23 at 18:56

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The old farm houses take on so much character as they age. When they are finally abandoned, as they inevitably are, they gain even more character, but of a sad and darker nature. This is a phenomena that will never be seen again as one by one the old houses are razed, or fall in upon themselves, to be replaced by double wides and more modern, but less soulful, homes.

Your poem conveys the struggle of the house to survive, and I imagine the couple that lived there and raised a family there struggling as well. And, finally, you enter the poem, you become part of the story. Or, perhaps, you are the story.

In a way I wish I could understand what makes your poems so consistently good. I can't figure it out, beyond the fact that you've obviously been writing and perfecting your craft for a good long time. It's just as well I don't know. We, all writers, have our own style defined by the quirks of our personalities and our histories. I can and do appreciate your writing without wanting to emulate it. But, dang, I can't help but wish a little of it would rub off!
2011-02-24



That indeed brings the reader home.
Specially for those that can relate,
as succinctly stated in Lawrence's comment.
2011-02-24


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Whoops; sorry for the mess-ups. I meant to write "nor," not "not," and I meant to write "in," not "into."
2011-02-23


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
This is neither here not there, but your poem reminded me of an old woman who lived in an old house into "downtown" Elkhorn, Nebraska until a few years ago. I used to drive by her and that house, which had a buckling foundation, saggy eaves, and badly peeling paint, and I wondered which would be the first to go. She was. One day, she was gone, and, very soon afterward, her house was bulldozed. There's just an empty lot there now.
2011-02-23