The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sat 4/8/06)

[RetroLounge]

Going Back To Clean The House

Afternoon waits the whole day for an angle it can use
to pry light into an empty room,
and I move through the rays with a broom,
straw against the floor,
kicking up dust,
my boots irregular, the sound of work.

In the snow your neat footprints lead away from the house
heel to toe, heel to toe, and they recall
not a face but a gait, a way of gesturing
with the body toward a destination.
From a whorl in the tread
at the ball of the foot
I infer also the boots' black laces;
I saw you tie them tightly this morning
but by afternoon the low sun has relaxed
the prints; your neat gait is imprecise,
sloppy in your absence.

Ah, I hate all this leaving. I remember my first keys
where adulthood began, chiming in my pockets, those little bells
carried like a bright little xylophone,
each intimate with a particular lock,
each singing about home and work
to anyone listening there.

David Franke

********************
David Franke teaches writing at the State University of New York at Cortland and directs their Professional Writing Program. He writes both poetry and creative nonfiction.

********************
RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. Very nice.

:hi:

How goes all, poet?

[RetroLounge]

4. Eh...

:hi:

RL

[yvr girl]

2. I was wondering where you were

Happy Saturday! :*

[RetroLounge]

5. Hey...

:hug:

Happy Saturday...

RL

[lizziegrace]

3. RL

Been there. :(

:hug:

[RetroLounge]

:hug:

RL

[RevCheesehead]

7. Cleaning sucks.

What makes it worse is the cleaning up after a loss.
Been there, done that.
Hell, I'm there now, too.

:hug:

[lizziegrace]

8. Rev

:hug:

[RevCheesehead]

20. aw, lizzie....

:hug: Thanks.

[RetroLounge]

11. Lots of fun packing up memories and cleaning up the past

:hug:

RL

[RevCheesehead]

19. you can still keep the good memories, if you want to.

The important thing is to focus on building new ones.
:hug::loveya:

[xchrom]

9. even snow, brief as it is, has a memory.

[RetroLounge]

12. "even snow, brief as it is, has a memory"

Good first line of a poem. Go...

:hi:

RL

[xchrom]

14. lol -- poet i'm not.

what i love is what poets and poetry are about.

it's a deep well for me.

[RetroLounge]

15. Everyone is a poet...

All you got to do is write it down...

RL

[xchrom]

16. lol -- yes they say that about singing too --

lemme just say -- ya wouldn't want to be in the room when i sing.

the choir kicked me to the curb, baby.

it's the same with poetry.

the gene FAILS me.

[RetroLounge]

17. Okay, that I agree with

When I sing, the neighborhood dogs all start to howling...

Not a pretty sound.

:rofl:

RL

[xchrom]

18. lol -- oh god -- i know that sound -- and well.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. My dear RetroLounge........

This one isn't just about cleaning, methinks.....

But about the loss that leads to it......

I love the precise images this one invokes.....

Thank you


:loveya: :hug:

[RetroLounge]

13. ...

:hug:

RL

[SeattleGirl]

21. The two images, first the clear footprints, then the fading ones,

really tell the story, don't they? :hug: