The Room Is as We Left It by Marion Strobel

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 7, 2017   The Room Is as We Left It   Marion Strobel

The room is as we left it But mellowed to a heightened Dignity. The chairs Have summer coverings Of cobwebs, The teakwood lamps are there, And still the bed sags To the center, And the table throws Its weight of shadow On the spread . . . . . . . Folly to have left the room unused: You did not merit such a nicety . . . .   A ragged ache of light Sifts through the dust: Blotches A grotesque of the present Upon the patterns of the past . . . My hands are bruised by surfaces I do not see, My fingers falter up and down A tracery of years, I sense the echo of a voice I do not hear, I am not sure the breath I hold Is mine.              This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "The Room Is as We Left It" was published in Volume 5, Number 6 of the magazine Others, in July of 1919.   Marion Strobel was born in 1895. Her collections of poetry include Once in a Blue Moon (Harcourt Brace, 1925) and Lost City (Houghton Mifflin, 1928). She died in 1967.     Poetry by Strobel   Lost City (Houghton Mifflin, 1928) "A Visit to the Asylum" by Edna St. Vincent Millay "Garden Abstract" by Hart Crane "The Return" by Ezra Pound Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038