| Muses Review Poetry |
| Sample 1: The Window Seat 1 While sailing through a cloudy sky, with a blank and thoughtless glance, I just caught sight of a real old house, so brief, and quite by chance! I'd seen enough to know that it was large, and very grand, A place that I would love to see, I couldn't wait to land. I hailed a cab and told the guy, [you should have seen his face] "Hey, just before we landed, I saw this awesome place,. I sure would love to find it, I know it can't be far!" He smiled and said, "I think you're better off to rent a car! She is a thing of beauty, though she looks a little tough. You saw a "painted lady", it's a diamond in the rough. 6 They say she's been abandoned, and they say there are no more". I leaned into the window, as I closed his taxi door, He told me how to get there, then he bid me, "Best of luck." I thanked him for the info, and I made him take a buck. My conference was tomorrow, so the time to go was now. I had the means to get there, and now that I knew how, I felt that I just had to go, my mind was racing fast. My destiny was just about to tie me to the past. Lurking deep within the trees, I might have driven by, But tiny twinklings slipped into the corner of my eye, 11 As, like a guiding star, she beckoned, so I wouldn't pass, And thus was I attracted, by her sparkling beveled glass. At last the woods were broken by a massive iron gate. It stood ajar, I parked the car, and headed toward my fate. I walked through nearly 90 feet of old but healthy trees before, at last, I stepped into a world one rarely sees! There she stood, surrounded by great walls of oak and pine. And right away I knew somehow, I had to make her mine. Before the porch I scanned the beveled glass and paneled door. Behind her stained glass windows I imagined so much more. 16 Yes, this was what for many years my heart had truly yearned, And so I checked the knob, and, yes, to my delight, it turned. I just was not prepared for what I saw within those walls. Paintings clad with gilded frames still lined the stately halls! Deep within the foyer stood a pair of figural lights Perched on matching newel posts, the staircase rose four flights. With transomed archways hovering over sprawling parquet floors, Through richly carved and smoothly sliding, massive pocket doors, I slipped into the parlor, What a sofa!.... What a chair! The scent of candle, freshly doused, Still seemed to fill the air! 21 And there, beneath her stained glass jewels, to make the room complete, A velvet covered cushion filled her stunning "window seat"! I found the kitchen, old wood stove, a four-door oak ice box. In every room were poised her fancy carved, though silent, clocks! Coffered ceilings, marble hearths, and all the hardware, brass! The gilded chandeliers were huge, some kerosene, some gas! The papered walls were elegant, the tapestries were bold, The casing round the windows brightly trimmed with antique gold! The ceilings had to be twelve feet, with murals still so clear. The velvet drapes, so lustrous, hmmm, could someone still be here? 26 The organ wasn't dusty, and my mind could hear it play. Despite the tale the cabbie told, it seemed like, yet today, There WAS somebody living here, and that would make me sick. When suddenly, I heard a noise that sounded like a "tick"! And then I heard another "tick", and then a little "tock"! Could, dear God, there somehow be, an actual RUNNING clock? I'd assumed the smell of candles freshly doused was in my mind, and prayed the ticking must have been just "creaking" of some kind, But when the organs' pedals started pumping by themselves, and I was serenaded, while the candles on the shelves 31 and all the lamps and chandeliers began to light and burn, whatever's on the upper floors I know I'll never learn! I left my "dream house' rather fast, I didn't close the door. I won't be back to visit, and will dream of one no more! I'm even thinking, when I fly, what used to seem a "treat", today has no appeal, and you can have that "window seat"! -------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004-2005 by Mark Stellinga All rights reserved. |
| Back to: Mark Stellinga's Homepage Mark Stellinga's Bookstore Mark Stellinga's Sample Poems: 1 Window Seat 2 Old Babe 3. The Hustle 4 The Reaper Denied 5 The Saga of Margie and Tim 6 Old Friends 7 First Fish With Gramps 8 The Salesman 9 A Special Christmas |
| Poetry of Mark Stellinga |
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| 5 = Excellent! |
| 4 = Very Good! |
| 3 = Satisfactory! |
| 2 = Lacking Depth! |
| 1 = Never Mind!! |
