Vox Populi
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Jim Daniels: If a Poem is a House
and I think it is, are the windows
open or closed? If closed,
are they broken, air seeping in
cracks, tinkling through
broken glass? Are there curtains,
blinds, heavy wooden shutters?
I have the bricks, but not
the windows, not the doors.
How many doors does a poem have?
A front door, a side door,
a back door, a basement door?
Are they locked?
A question mark is a master key
but what if there’s a deadbolt?
Are we outside the poem
or inside? Do we feel
claustrophobic or safe? How safe
is too safe? Germs on the door
handle? Graffiti on the walls?
Is the house infested
with vermin or roaches,
carpenter ants or carpenters?
If the house has a pet
does it come when called?
Is that a bat up in the attic
and are we okay with that?
If a poem is a house, is the mail
piling up on the floor?
Who knocks on the door?
Nobody robs the poetry house
and nobody makes donations.
It is just a house
where somebody lives
breath by breath.
See how the windows fog.
~~~~
Jim Daniels’s many collections of poetry include Gun/Shy (Wayne State, 2021) and Comment Card (Carnegie Mellon University, 2024). He was born and grew up in Detroit and now lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, the writer Kristin Kovacic.
Copyright 2024 Jim Daniels
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Thought you might like this piece.Plus – Hope time away is good in all ways. Including autumn setting. Enjoy! – J
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Yep. Feels true.
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Yep it does.
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What an unexpected & provocative interrogation-of-a-poem poem!
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Well-said, Laure-Anne!
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What a fantastic poem that provides a marvelous way to start the day
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I like the clarity of the poem. It never gets too far away from its central metaphor.
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Poets live in houses built of craft and imagination. Poet Street always awaits guest-readers, chock full of its parade of homes. Those domiciles, when best built, most intriguing in design, or with the breath making foggiest windows, may someday even be inhabited by newer poets. Daniels’s metaphor here is fun and thought-provoking. Thanks for this different poem. Oh, and to add a mud room, Vox Populi is the real estate agent!
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Hahaha. I used to work in the real estate field, so your metaphor for VP is closer than you might have realized.
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For you, poetry is not the boulevard of broken dreams, but the avenue of remodeled careers. haha
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Hahaha
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