Contents:
The House That Stands - Project Description
The House That Stands - Poems (Excerpted)
The House That Stands - Project Description
The House That Stands is a 32-page chapbook by Stefan A. Rose, published by Anchorage Press in 2008. It was designed by Andrew Steeves, and printed under the direction of Gary Dunfield of Gaspereau Press. The book won the Alcuin Society's 27th annual Award for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, Poetry Category.
More information about the chapbook is available on this website in Media - The House That Stands.
The House That Stands - Poems (Excerpted)
The House That Stands
I
the house that stands
remains
the same
change of minor
importance continues
as will be done
for more generations
to pass the stone
faces and walls
coloured red with light
rising above the earth
the residence
memorial to
Trueman
VII
shaft wars
don't involve weapons
but other booby trapping
retaliations
exploding
cans of shaving cream
spraying inhabitants
or belongings
in darkened rooms
innocents lost
in swirling clouds
of baby powder
propelled
under phone booth doors
wedged shut
suffocating and
choking call to home
when you visit the East
be wary of words
trickery
preceded by rhetoric
balanced with buckets
of scorn from the natives
after the deluge
the innocent question
ever been to sea, Billy?
IX
I’ve seen many girls
who have
entered Trueman
and left worried
as mothers do
at the visitation
at the turn
and the tail of the year
some girls have lived
ensconced in rooms
and acted
served
as example
to stay a bachelor
in his passage
from one room
to the next
with her cries
XVI
the boys age
unable to catch up
to the aging
Trueman
the common continual
national sport
in the hallways
invading corridors
with tape-wound sticks
bound to defend
laminated cores
from chipping
black marks
on the walls
on the floor
a Siskind image
repeated year after year
to grumbles and sighs
of custodians
fighting in the corners
until institutionalized
paint can no longer
withstand the punishment
repeated
of scuffing, scoring, scrubbing
periodically
this house
acquires
or reveals
another layer of character
over time
XXII
the house that stands
remains
the same
change of minor
importance continues
as will be done
for more generations
that pass the stone
faces and walls
coloured red with light
rising above the earth
the residence
memorial to
Trueman
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