Rod Smith   from THE GOOD HOUSE The good houses the parts, calls to them, & wakens-- ............in being, the house we will, its precepts ............lumber the stilling male-- ............opulence isn't allowed, so to ............form is to erase what's not ............gradual & new--a specific ............love to focus the elements ............when we lock the door ............things float around awhile, ............climax, & rest ............in the new sense »»»   The good part of the house is where something leaves alone the light that it lattice the red, souring, hoarse needs made by no other--safety depends in them-- ............so knowing strength ............so knowing weakness this is where we will, & home »»»   The good house feels bad about the territory .........................-- the house seems to be a verb though it dislikes the term 'housing'--the house seems to be a bad dog & a live wire--the house is bored until people come over--the house is anxious to please guests-- it is stupid & so thinks cordon means love--it is wise & so chooses-- ............the honesty of the house helps ............the people to know--they can ............relax & recall other houses ............they have known, they become ............simple & listen to each other ............& to some birds, the birds right now »»»           The good house wasn't built into the house but earned, once a beggar lived there, & once a small one-- the police came & went there were parties »»»   The good was an upkeep It was a perilous upkeep There was kindling »»»   This house was that house to many--& to many there was no house there because they hadn't noticed--there was one who noticed & was wanted, was loved this gave the house hope this gave the house no hope this gave the house hope it alternated. sometimes house, sometimes home »»»   & sometimes the kitty kicks the bicycle on the porch »»»   there's a barrel in the basement that belongs to a country singer named Nel-- there's an old wonderbread wrapper behind the kitchen cabinet nobody knows the story on-- there's a stack of bad news in a box by the back door-- there's a wreath in a box behind the thing & a bauble on the windowbox above some stuff-- »»»   tears never house us, maybe they cleanse, maybe they don't, the word intend doesn't seem to fit sentiment »»»   the good house is given advice: In times of danger ceremonious forms are dropped. What matters most is sincerity. »»»   There are 8 houses in the heart, there should be 9. »»»   the good house--it is heavy, the good house--it exercises hope in the inhuman, is transformed by it-- ............becomes blatant in its strength ............& is destroyed, the good ............house must be rebuilt ............carefully. The good house ............is in conflict. »»»   if the house were up for rent things would be different »»»   The natural laws, & the longing of the house--its hero variants stalk the vestibules like cormorants, seeking new skills & other pests, pepper to put on the belonging, a stereoscope of the casual surfaces, pecked through, the learning underneath. »»»   It is a fair question how one goes about cleaning such a house-- »»»   only so much danger will fit in the house, only so much style--when raining or when unimpaired, the house looks out & out, lunging--apparent listless tilling, in Pembroke, in the nascent stopover, the breathing house, those who mend the fence, the list of attributes, the pile of bills for those attributes, the basement of regard, a place to single out & carry on-- housed one amidst else, sometimes tired, not undone, the soft tasks of inner truth, .........................the relative weights of relatives & relativity, the absolute, its circular motion, & the making, & the making. »»»   Housenight, the way a house happily unfolds, because it isn't buried, because the disencumbered, pre or entailing, hothouse never severs but cups, houselike, the dreamstate, the housed part the closed inside then a kind of waiting always     Rod Smith is the author of In Memory of My Theories (O Books), The Boy Poems (BDB), Protective Immediacy (Roof), New Mannerist Tricycle with Lisa Jarnot and Bill Luoma (Beautiful Swimmer), and Music or Honesty (forthcoming from Roof). The Good House, a long poem, was recently published by Spectacular Books. Poèmes de laraignée was just published in France by Bureau sur l'Atlantique. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including Anthology of New American Poets, The Baffler, The Gertrude Stein Awards, New American Writing, Open City, Shenandoah, and The Washington Review. He edits Aerial magazine, publishes Edge Books, and manages Bridge Street Books in Washington, DC. Published in Volume 4, Number 2, Spring 2003.   To read more by this author: Dan Gutstein on Rod Smith: The Profiles Issue