The House, Alive

A poem I wrote in tribute to an old abandoned house I fell in love with that was recently torn down. Sad times. :D

 

knocking on the wooden door;

banging of the dresser drawers.

footsteps to a funeral dirge;

lights flicker in electric surge.

 

through endless days, running water;

crumbling walls are first to falter.

heavy shoes on tired feet;

a worn wood floor, a fearless beat.

 

pulsating veins stretch green and bold,

strangling out small flecks of mold.

a rhythm held so stern and deep;

it does not wake; it does not sleep.

 

it only drums a story today;

vibrations felt where foundations lie.

a pounding of what it wants to say

to one and ev’ry passerby.

Author's Note

Capitalization is missed on purpose for flow and feel.

Reviews

[Steven Szepietowski]

It is a feeling almost paradoxical: sometimes old buildings need to be razed to bring new ones, but it kills a certain nostalgia that we have. The sense of history and beauty goes with many old houses, no matter how bad they may be. It reminds me of driving around detroit(about where i live) and seeing old abandoned homes in numerous quantities. Some people consider them eyesores, but I love seeing old houses in any shape. It's just great to look at them and ponder what they looked like years ago when they were new, who might have lived in them, what the insides look like. You captured many of those feelings here, with eloquence and rhyming no less! Well done I say.
I do like the active verbage that you use to really bring something stationary to life, and still manage to give the reader some juicy descriptions that we can hang on to.

[Donald Ray Heistand]

This poem really speaks to me because at the college where I work they have torn down a number of old homes to make way for new buildings. I often think of those old places when I am at the sites where they once stood. It's rather sad. What I get from the poem is that all the lives that have been led in the house have given it a kind of life of its own.

[Felicia Aguilar]

This is melancholy and beautiful and there is something about the structure of the poem that makes the poem itself seem alive. It has a certain suspense building up towards the end, much like the house's "life".