Grandma's House, in Winter



Come, up the railing
past the bird houses long since empty.
Through the front door
greeted softly
by the Christmas tree from 3 years back.
Next to it, along the wall
a beat up piano
found for cheap at a garage sale.

Through the dining room
crystal glasses, gold candelabras
family photos stacked on shelves
rom coms play dully on tv
candies placed in glass dishes.

Take a left, to the room
romance novels
dog-eared pages
feather comforter
obituary print outs
gold plated jewelry stacked around
lives once lived.

A long fur coat hangs in the hall closet
filled with shoes and throws.
Pastel perfume bottles line pink walls
every shade of nail polish found
in the bathroom drawer.

Come now, to the warm kitchen
where supper simmers on the stove.
Fresh bread from Bernie
beers in the fridge
warm meal welcomes passerbys.

About this poem

This poem is a tour of my grandma's house, an ode to a life long-lived, and a tribute to a moment in time.

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Written on June 15, 2023

Submitted by morganneering on June 20, 2023

47 sec read
79

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABAXXXX CDDAD CDDXDEX XDDEB XXAXD
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 826
Words 159
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 5, 7, 5, 5

Morgan Neering

Born and raised in small town USA- Morgan is an American writer and poet living in France. She is currently working on her debut photo-poetry collection, focusing on the exploration of nostalgia and self-discovery. more…

All Morgan Neering poems | Morgan Neering Books

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Discuss the poem Grandma's House, in Winter with the community...

3 Comments
  • Vixility
    Please let us know when your photo poetry collection is released …
    LikeReply 11 year ago
  • Vixility
    I certainly agree with the above assessment: I was drawn frame by frame into the ambient environment of a cozy, inviting house during some remote December evening. Throughout, I felt like I was the narrator's guest as we entered her grandmother's house and slowly explored each room until we arrived at the heart of the house where a homemade dinner and love was waiting. "A tribute to a moment in time", the poem is a remarkable experience.

    Might I add (and it is just a coincidence that our poet resides in France), as I read through the poem I was reminded of the elaborate and beautiful writing of Joris-Karl Huysmans, especially as it relates to his novel, "A rebours". Well done!
     
    LikeReply 11 year ago
    • morganneering
      Wow, thank you so much for your kindness and interest in my work, it really means the world to me. Your insights are beautiful, and I am so happy that you have found meaning in these words. Feel free to follow me on Instagram at @mneering, I would be happy to support one another in our writing endeavors! 
      LikeReply1 year ago
  • robertg.73901
    This is a poem where the old Joseph Conrad adage about the purpose of an art work being “above all to make you see,” readily applies here. It is a poem in five acts in which the tone and texture invite a reader (much like the addressee who is being invited in (perhaps a ‘passerbys’ (sic)) to take a guided tour of a house that has seen better days but whose owner, grandma, still offers an open-handed and open-hearted welcome.
    The poetic equivalent of a hand-held camera technique guides the observer’s eye on this winding tour of the house. There are signs of decay everywhere, from the old Xmas tree and cheap piano to the dog-eared paperbacks to the old fur coat and cheap jewelry, that have the effect of turning the once vibrant house into a place of suspended animation complete with the artifacts and memories of yesteryear.
    But the ‘warm’ kitchen, with the ‘warm’ meal simmering, is still the simmering heart of the house, where despite the empty rooms and tawdry jewelry, a certain grace still animates the place.
    Despite some idiosyncratic punctuation and the faux pas of the final word, the poem does its nostalgic and hopeful work excellently well. Its subtleties are to be savoured much like the stew, and even without a hunk of bread and a beer, chewed slowly and thoughtfully.
     
    LikeReply 21 year ago
    • morganneering
      Thank you so much for your kind words and insights, I loved experiencing the poem through your eyes!
      LikeReply1 year ago

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"Grandma's House, in Winter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/163658/grandma's-house,-in-winter>.

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