A House Upon the Height

I love this poem too which I posted on Poemhunter.com

A House upon the Height
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an abandoned house
saps the spirit with its
nagging and chilling emptiness,
a black hole that sucks out
the shimmering warm sun to
throw shadows and ice over
the hazy lanes of imagination

a broken empty house on
the height echoes relentless
gloom and tales of woe through
each of its missing chilling window panes
missing pages of a horror story that solicit
entries from the haunted mind
of an innocent who has lost his
way in the dark of night

the overgrown grass strays
haphazardly and almost in a haste
to doors, windows, walls and
collapsing roof to claim its static prey
they wake up a body of monks (ghost bumps)
with their reverberating aum aum chants
that have the negative effects of sending shivers
down one's spine

a torn and soiled jacket strewn
across the menacing garden
a little baby's drum, holed and beaten out
of shape by the unkind weather
carry with them broken dreams

an empty house wears itself out
sooner than an occupied house
a world shunning loner, who eventually
descends into despair, a wretched soul losing
all its charm and love

Ben Gieske (8/26/2008 7:53:00 AM) This poem is open to multiple meanings. I can read it as referring to one house (the sucking in effect) , or to two houses (the second one with forces echoing outward) . I like the “lazy lanes of imagination” and the vivid images that follow in the outdoors around this house.

Callie Carroll (8/10/2008 4:28:00 PM) Excellent! Thank you for including your source of inspiration; I too use this technique (reading is my fuel) . What a perfect way to describe the way a decrepit house captures us, 'saps the spirit with its nagging and chilling emptiness.' You communicate perfectly the despair.