Close Talking: A Poetry Podcast

Episode #071 My Grandmother's House - Kamala Surayya

06.14.2019 - By Cardboard Box Productions, Inc.Play

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Connor and Jack discuss Kamala Surayya's haunting poem, My Grandmother's House. Memory and nostalgia, the use of houses in poetry and song, and even a reference to Mad Men: this episode has it all.

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My Grandmother’s House

By: Kamala Surayya

There is a house now far away where once

I received love……. That woman died,

The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved

Among books, I was then too young

To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon

How often I think of going

There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or

Just listen to the frozen air,

Or in wild despair, pick an armful of

Darkness to bring it here to lie

Behind my bedroom door like a brooding

Dog…you cannot believe, darling,

Can you, that I lived in such a house and

Was proud, and loved…. I who have lost

My way and beg now at strangers' doors to

Receive love, at least in small change?

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