It's Still Life

A House Built By Wind …

There’s a house built in the corner of the sky,
Where stars rain down like snow and leaf.
A short broad candle’s a welcoming light
And set on the sill’s a white heart-shaped stone.
It’s a house in the midst of northern wind,
Standing upright-firm on old oak tree roots,

It grows deep as a fine thinking mind, those roots.
It’s chimney blowing woody smoke at the sky,
This empty landless sky-bound house of wind.
This house where no hammer fell, no gold leaf
Or delicate flock on cries heavier than stone,
Or the death of night’s silence at daylight.

And at night that house was lighter than light,
Roof blown off, no walls, no restraint on roots,
And up they climbed skyward, pushing stones
Up through the crystallised cold, cold sky.
And no matter the season, leaf on leaf
Fell, coming to rest on a sweep of wind.

This house that was built for stars by wind,
Once a house of human sighs, devoid of light,
Once a house of endings, a crumbling leaf,
A house unhinged on foundations of roots
Until every dark cloud became the sky,
And every burden became another stone.

Hope was cast like leaves, stone on stone.
What happens to dreams carried on wind,
Fleeing on inexhaustible sails into the sky.
And what of windows that won’t hold light –
What becomes of love that won’t take root.
Does love fall apart like a tree shedding leaf?

There’s a place where stars fall like snow and leaf.
Where treasure is a white heart-shaped stone
And where the past is held in old oak tree roots.
The windows always welcome a northern wind,
And I recall the warmth of coal fires, its light
in shades of a northern winter sky.

This house was built for the stars by wind
With windows never covetous of the light
Even when darkest of clouds swallowed sky

PAD (Poem-a-Day Challenge) Day 14 with Prompt: Write a poem constrained by form. I chose Sestina , (fool that I am) end words repeat and rotate; 39 lines. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2024.