You may know that in addition to my poetry I also do art, posted on my blog Claudia McGill and Her Art World. For the next several months I will be posting here a combined art/poetry project, Large Artist Sketchbook 2020.

I fill up sketchbooks with all kinds of art. Some contain images only and some of them I use the images as inspiration for poetry. In these books the image is on one page of the spread and the poetry on the other. This book is set up in this manner.

I’ll show you the image and then add the poem that goes with it. See what you think.

Our Whole Family Is in Residence Here

This house
It’s been our house for a very long time
decades generations we hope for centuries
Remodeled kitchen more than once
Bedrooms handed down and down
New sofa or reupholster the old one?
The bathroom floor all its original tiles. No cracks.

We are all always here in this house
None of us ever leave
and make it permanent.
Oh we go out in the world
but sooner or later we make our way back
don’t we? Come in and I’ll see who’s at home
Give me a moment to sift through the layers.

Who was it you wanted to see?
Flesh and blood
current occupants today –
or the less substantial –
so many to choose from?

I hear the vacuum running upstairs
Do you hear it? No?
Let me see if I can get her attention for you.

3/12/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 12