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Kzookeeper
October 9, 2008

The House with Nobody In It

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Journaling on card behind photo: "Back in the summer, Jerry, Sarah and I went out one Sunday afternoon, just riding around and taking photos. Jerry remembered seeing this old house one day when he was out working in the country and thought that Sarah would like to take some pictures of it. After riding around a bit, we finally found it and Sarah got her photos. The first thing I thought of when I saw it, was this poem by Joyce Kilmer. It’s always seemed such a sad thing to me, to see an older house that has been abandoned. I always wonder who lived there in the past and what happened to make them abandon it. This house had signs that someone had tried to fix it up, but that too looked like it had been abandoned. It really did look to be a house with a broken heart."

Poem reads: Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.

by Joyce Kilmer

I tried out Sarah's new Cricut machine - had to cut my letters out four times and still wasn't totally happy! Obviously, it takes some practice - maybe I'd better stick with the hand cutting! LOL! The flowers and circles all are handcut from the bg pp. TFL!!!!!


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