POETRY INSPIRATION: Revision & Home Renovation
Tamera WIll WissingerWe are in the midst of a home renovation. We’ve done a few over the years, so it’s not surprising when we walk in and the kitchen looks like this:
Do you love my new kitchen island?
Maybe because I’ve been writing and revising throughout the process (thank heaven for temporary housing), the renovation has caused me to draw the parallels between revision and home renovation: Starting with a good idea and a framework, we must decide what’s worth keeping, and what needs to be demolished and then built back up in a better way. The process is messy and time-consuming, yet it can also be rewarding as the new structure begins to take shape. We are propelled on by the promise of the something improved, something inhabitable, a result in which we can take pride.
Here is the start to a poem that was inspired by another house at another time that was giving us fits:
OUR HOUSE
In nineteen-hundred-twenty-two,
our house was tidy, fresh and new.
But decades passed and we admit
we have neglected things a bit.
Our door is cracked, the railing creaks,
the doorbell doesn’t ring, it squeaks.
Our toilets tinkle, faucets drip,
the stairways waggle, sway and dip…
© 2013 Tamera Will Wissinger
Don't you just love the possibilities that come with do-overs?
Enjoy Poetry Friday at Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference.
01/25/2013
Reader Comments (8)
"For eighty years, we've nailed and screwed, we've trimmed and caulked and then...
another eighty years from now, we'll do it all again!"
(Sorry, just had to!)
Great poem...so relatable!
Wow! That is quite the renovation, Tamera! I love your connection between renovation and poetry revision - "messy and time consuming"! So true! But totally worth it. Your poem is wonderful - I can relate to the "squeaky" doorbell. It sent our dog into hysterics every time someone rang, uh, I mean, squeaked it. =)
Good luck with your renovation and revision! Enjoyed your poem; smiled at "toilets tinkle" . . . :)
Your kitchen island is awesome -- I had one of those in our last house. By the time they were done demolishing I could see up through the ceiling and down into the basement. I need to do a better job of revising down the the studs. :-)
Good point, Tamera! Do-overs do offer fascinating possibilities. (And when your stairways are waggling -- whether they be in your house or in your poetry/prose-- you really do need to do something!)
Thanks for chiming in, Bridget, Katya, and Tabatha!
Funny about your squeaky doorbell and your dog's reaction, Bridget. That sounds like a poem in itself!
Glad you like my island, Katya, though I thought it was one of a kind! It's never a good feeling to see through the ceiling, is it, unless it's poetry revision we're talking about.
So true, Tabatha...waggling stairways do need attention, be they real or imagined.
Matt and Jama, thanks for jumping in here, I didn't see your comments right away.
Matt, I love your take off...It sounds like the voice of experience.
Jama, thanks. I'm glad the tinkly toilet gave you a smile!
This is a great post. I love the blog and the poem. It is awesome.