Long Dormer Poems

I was was born in Ottawa, Canada and have lived here all my life and have 
never wanted to leave.  It is a beautiful city rich in historic architecture.
It is located where two rivers...

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An eight-drawer dresser sits in an attic corner
Under the east wall dormer
It has a drawer that's quite a bother
It's the bottom drawer, a pesky drawer
That the family tries to ignore
It won’t open, it sticks and...

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Bought at an antiques store for a song:
unframed print #225 of 750, signed by the artist
Number III of the family name, all painters,
(presumably) Those forbears hard to discard--
"Stay Awhile" its title, hospitably captioned by
a country...

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Sundial
My passion is the silent weather vane
The gambrel brought such sorrow
Much I marveled this roughcast cairn
Eagerly I looked for the lintel

I have dreamed of the clocks
Eagerly I looked for the masonry
It was heterodox
Somewhat louder than...

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Elvin Allen

1889 – 1905

They were like iron trees!
Hundreds of them!
Poking and piercing their way into the sun-lit sky,
Like moist fingers
Testing the wind direction to the east.
I was born into this Quaker town on Bright Street.
If...

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Esther Shugg

1833 – 1908

A woman’s heart forever resides
In the glowing hearth of her humble home.
Come Earth dwellers. Come Earth survivors.
I invite you to my warm and cozy house.
There, on the southwest corner
Of Mar Vista and...

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it’s 2 am in paris 
and we have locked arms 
as we walk-run
down the rue des rosiers.
the soles of our shoes
smack against 
the eight hundred
year old cobblestone.
we hurry 
to an unknown destination,
desperately searching 
for a...

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Every day I pass it by
This house of solid wood,
I would like to go inside,
If only that I could.

It has a large veranda
All across the front
And lovely dormer windows
Where the occupants look out.

Each time that...

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My bed is a vintage and very old 
I adore the swirled black metal
nice to behold
so delicate each created petal
I inherited it from grandma long ago
and can never let it go

The mattress is not to...

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It's winter as I view the merging between night and dawn
Frosted dew crunches underfoot as I stroll across my lawn
Around me the world is hushed and a fading star still shines
Virgin snow fell overnight, settling...

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Stranger things happen

Than what's just happened to me!

Walking past a house

I saw an image there

In the dormer window looking

I noticed the burn of her stare

As I stood to take a look

She just vanished in thin...

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I was gently awakened by euphonic cooing
of mated doves perched on aspen branches
whose golden leaves rustled sweet silver songs
I rushed to open my wooden dormer window
and hum a greeting to their soft morning trills

With hands...

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I. Beyond the open dormer, high boughs of trees stir.
Your voice is in the green leaves,
In the mingled limbs moving, stirred by fluid air
Flowing past the casement, touching eyelid and cheek. Shoulder.
Caress of ephemeral particles...

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