Sonnet Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of Kelly Writers House

"...a fairer house than prose..."

-Emily Dickinson

A house is like a poem: you open the door,
walk in, one room leads to another, one turn
of phrase to the next. You have no floor-
plan, no destination, how you learn

is by going, by clearing thresholds, entering
alcoves of thought, corridors of insight,
by way of stairway, archway, always arriving
to make it new, to bring it into light.

Where are you now? Surely someplace pivotal
which asks of you to either turn, or keep on
moving deeper, into a bright salon
of clear ideas, where everyone gathers, and all

the mind's windows are open to what's next,
here, where house and poem easily intersect.

-Gregory Djanikian