This House Which Is Lived In (rev)

This house which is lived in resounds
with the chorus of voices bound in the
press of its generous and unconcealed
affection; blessings are neither distressed
nor restrained, nor caught in an intricate
mesh of wicker and wire-ordered veins
of its construction, contained within gentle,
carbon-breathing walls.

The halls are hung with wooded reminders
that ask forbearance – the task is benign
and in the heartbeat pulsing rooms you find
mementos in a precious arcade.

The rooms are clothed in guises unique and
disconnected each from each, yet oddly unified,
resting easily before eyes truly seduced,
wearing tenant characters deduced in muted
shades and crafted shadows folded into thriving
colour and softened drapes hung or flung in wide,
comforting curves revealing objects ordinarily
placed in ordered disorder;

this space is so soothing and yet it deceives
in the ease it steals your heart. Where do you
start in generous word and unclichéd phrases
describing a house which astounds and amazes?
© 2004, I.D. Carswell
For Paula and her amazing Houses