Step through an ordinary
Doorway into Another Universe:²
A little Curtained World within walls.³
Whose house cannot give a welcome to
The bright Moon & refreshing Breeze?⁴
The house: a
Lovely thing to Wear.⁵
Soft & Organic in a land of
Geometric edges & rectangle walls: the
Aching point of Poetry in any empty room.⁶
We and the house lend each
Other mutual Support.⁷
This bed: thy Center is—
These walls: thy Sphere—⁸
Each of us is the Room we Inhabit:⁹
Mind—a Room—casts infinite
Love from four walls!¹⁰
¹ Denise Levertov, Travels
² Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
³ Kenneth Graham, The Wind in the Willows
⁴ Tenkai tr. unknown, Commentary on The Blue Cliff Record
⁵ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A Child’s Grave at Florence
⁶ Zoe Hazen, Ode to Existentialism
⁷ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
⁸ John Donne, The Sun Rising
⁹ Terrance Hayes, Arbor for Butch
¹⁰ Joanna Klink, Cancer (Prayer for My Father)