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Jamie Keith
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LANDSCAPE OF THE MIND
In the landscape of her dreams
Are houses, filled with countless rooms
With endless doorways leading one on to the
next.
Night after night she tours the unreal
estate of sleep
Wandering from room to room
Turning on lights, testing the beds,
sniffing the air.
She moves the furniture and finds herself
somewhere new.
All is turned in
As she wanders night after night
Exploring newly renovated kitchens,
Refurbished attics, refinished basements,
Evaluating the use of space, the
sensitivities of design,
Examining the application of paint,
Stretching of carpet, nailing down of
hardwood, laying on of plaster, raising of
crown molding,
Calculating the value of materials, labor,
light,
Yearning to find something to make her stay.
MOTIVE
I hold it cupped in my hand,
The power that moves the planet:
Warm and soft with downy rub
A touch of thigh in the night.
This that fuels the flood of posterity,
Propels the flight of fighter plane
And fertile, soaring imagination,
Urges the search of unmapped distances.
This that grounds us
Offers comfort, reason, peace and place of
mind,
Inspires resonant eloquence echoing down the
ages;
Provokes unalterable emotion that sets in
play
The monuments of history,
Unreasonable action, murder, revenge, abuse;
Awakes the body, looses logic.
This: the faintest brush of flesh.
Jamie Elliott Keith makes her home in
Knoxville, Tennessee, where she works,
raises a family and finds much inspiration
for writing.
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