Step through an Ordinary
Doorway into Another Universe²
The House – a Lovely thing to Wear³
The little Curtained World within walls⁴
I and the House lend each other Mutual Support⁵
Mind: a Room, casts Infinite Love from four walls⁶
This Bed thy Center is, these Walls – thy Sphere⁷
Whose House cannot give a Welcome to
The bright Moon & refreshing Breeze?⁸
Soft & Organic in a land of Geometric
Edges & Rectangle Walls: the Aching
Point of Poetry in any Empty Room⁹
Each of us is the Room we Inhabit¹⁰
¹ Denise Levertov, Travels
² Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
³ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A Child’s Grave at Florence
⁴ Kenneth Graham, The Wind in the Willows
⁵ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
⁶ Joanna Klink, Cancer (Prayer for My Father)
⁷ John Donne, The Sun Rising
⁸ Tenkai tr. unknown, Commentary on The Blue Cliff Record
⁹ Zoe Hazen, Ode to Existentialism
¹⁰ Terrance Hayes, Arbor for Butch