"Nooks and Crannies" by Sylvia Cavanaugh

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present "Nooks and Crannies" by Sylvia Cavanaugh.  Ms. Cavanaugh has an M.S. in Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin.  She teaches high school African and Asian cultural studies and advises break-dancers and poets. She and her students are actively involved in the Sheboygan chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change. Her poems have appeared in: An Arial Anthology, Gyroscope Review, The Journal of Creative Geography, Midwest Review, Stoneboat Literary Journal, and elsewhere.  She is a contributing editor for Verse-Virtual: An Online Community Journal of Poetry.  Finishing Lines Press published her chapbook, Staring Through My Eyes.  Ms. Cavanaugh is originally from Pennsylvania.

Nooks and Crannies

Sylvia Cavanaugh

I always wanted a house with an attic

full of nooks and crannies

to find something hidden

to find my mother

in an old print play dress

with careful smocking

or a whole village

that a model train could circle

to find my father before he enlisted

before all the paucity of now

these smooth plaster walls

can contain

Poet’s Notes:  I think of houses as being metaphors for the mind.  I also feel that parents sometimes hold back information at which children can only guess.  As adults we need a little personal and private space for our thoughts and memories.  In this poem I tried to bring these ideas together in the concept of a small modern house that feels too blank, as the child may feel she does not really know her parents.

Editor's Note:  Liked this one?  Enjoy another lovely poem by Ms. Cavanaugh here: http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2015/11/poem-of-day-fort-of-blankets-by-sylvia.html.