While I Wasn't Blogging...

OR doing housework, or anything at all responsible...


I wrote THIS!


It's not quiiite  polished (well, new poems usually are not), but I thought I'd share it, anyway :)


I think perhaps I will stick a copy of it on my wall as justification for all the un-done tasks around the house....

House Song

The mellow sunshine warms the tiles

and makes the joists and bearers

creak and shift

and crack the quiet,

softened by domestic hum;

The automated tedium

of appliances.  The fridge

and computer

add their layers.

The clock ticks.

The mixer splishes

in the sink, among the dishes

left from noisy mealtimes.

Done for now.

And all the airy breathiness

and spaces tell me still

with eyes closed

whether doors are open, or the

sash is on the sill

Downstairs, the scrabbling of the cat.

He plays with papers left by that

Boy, who, now at school

has forgotten once again, the rule

of packing homework, games and socks

and on return

will likely drop some more.

Now is the quiet of the day

when chatter and demands

are gone away

yet still are close; familiar

as the walls.  These walls;

these spaces

where love and fights

have both been made

And which have witnessed

loss and gain

tenacity, stupidity

tenderness and pain

and all the rhythms and disharmonies

of domesticity and being.

Familiar now

as breathing.

Outside, birdsong echoes in the spaces.

It lilts the air, ethereal

across the autumn chill.

Nearby, a car has left its drive and turns the corner.

Its purposeful intent throttles, dopples on

down the street,

echoing off to distances unknown, unseen

while currawong and myna calls

echo in from door to walls

and mingling with the silky air

trace and drift ‘round

furnishings and tasks left waiting,

making quiet corners and still surfaces

Softer still

There are jobs to do

and soon the noise of them

will fill the room.

But I am slow

To break the spell of silence

that enfolds me now

and holds me in its soft embrace.

I am myself

Inside this space

Kerry Miller