Posted in letting go, lock keeper's house on May 3, 2012 | 5 Comments »
When I heard,
I let supper wait
and went down to take a picture.
It had prompted so many posts
I knew you’d want to know.
Other posts you may like:
It’s Been There All Along
Feels Wrong to Snap the Photo
Did Pig-Tailed Girls Run Here?
The Truth about Neglected Things
The Day Laura Visited
Posted in lock keeper's house, mysteries, Uncategorized on September 6, 2011 | 2 Comments »
TODAY AT THE LOCK I saw two young men with cameras and clipboards walking around the lock keeper’s house in a steady rain, stopping to jot things down and snap photos, then hurrying to protect their equipment from water damage.
I wanted to ask.
I wanted to put on my Tilley and go through the rain and ask.
See how much I’ve taken possession of this place that has captured my imagination, to the point wondering what they are doing and feeling they have no right to do it without my knowing?
Silly.
I knew what I’d say.
I’m a writer who comes here often and I’m currently writing about the house (not true) and I can’t help but wonder WHAT IS HAPPENING? Is it being sold, renovated, knocked down?
I don’t.
I don’t put on my hat. I don’t get out of the car. I don’t ask.
But I also DO.
I do see how I’ve taken ownership. I do see the depth to which the metaphor of the neglected house has connected. I do begin to wonder whether what I’ve already written is just a toe in the water.
There is nothing quite so motivating
as seeing a subject that inspires disappearing!
Posted in faith, lock keeper's house on April 25, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Continuing from “Did Pigtailed Girls Run Here?“
I WONDER
about neglected things,
whether they are destined to stay as such,
to bear the marks of neglect,
deep down,
long after restoration,
after they cease being neglected things.
Will what lies underneath
stay weak
and the structure remain
always
a compromised
less-than thing?
“Watch out! The subfloor isn’t what it ought to be over there.”
“Don’t lean too hard there. It’s a weak spot.”
* * *
AND WHAT OF neglected people,
whose needs
go long unmet?
Though years pass
and a great distance be gained,
and circumstances change,
is it really only appearance,
their improvement?
Like a cracked vase painted over?
Are they destined
to be
always
less-than things,
hyper-sensitive
in healed-over spots
under which lie
permanent wounds?
Always a weakness there. Watch out.
Must their view
out onto the world
always be through dingy windows,
contorted images
their only reality?
Does there remain
crumbled cement
under the new,
so that those approaching are wise to take caution?
Can there be no smooth landings,
but always
tripping places,
and always in the same place?
Is this then the truth
about the neglected things of this world,
that the most that can be hoped for
is the appearance of change?
I say no.
Go ahead and call me terminally optimistic
(I’ve been called worse),
but I do not put boundaries
on the power of God.
I have only once or twice in life
thought someone beyond hope,
but I quickly recovered from these lapses.
CeLeBRaTiNG today
that there is
such a thing
as the resurrected life.
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