Poetry Contest Winner!! :)

The Clarksville Public Library's Junior Library board holds a poetry contest every year. Last year I won first place with my Birds of a Feather poem and this year I entered an old poem of mine: The Old House. Today I was informed that I won first place again (yay!) So, I thought I would post the poem so all of you could benefit from it as well. :D Just a note about the inspiration....One day about two years ago we were driving down a "back road" on our way to Dallas and every few miles there would be an old country house out in the middle of a pasture. The more I would look at them the more I thought about the families that could have lived there. The animals that grazed on the pasture, the old sleeping dog that could have slept on the porch, the laughing children that could have ran around the house. It was so touching to think that a whole generation's story could be waiting inside the dilapidated walls. And so I reached for my notebook and scribbled this down.......................

The Old House

There's an old country house

In the heart of a land

That has a 9 acre length

And an 8 acre span

A path to the house

Shows no sign of a step

The porch is yet empty

Where a dog had once slept

Inside is a rocking chair

And a chest with a quilt

That was made by the wife

Of the man who had built

This old country house

One time, long before

It housed the man and his wife

And the children they bore

But for so many years

No one lived in the house

No feet touched the floor

Except the ones of a mouse

The patter of feet

The bark of the dog

All the hay for the horses

The slop for the hog

All sounds were forgotten

No smells come to mind

When one walks through the kitchen

That was home at one time

But no matter how vacant

No matter how bare

The memory of family

Forever lingers there

(This picture was not taken by me, by the way. :) I found it in a magazine and loved it so much that I wanted it to go with this post!)

(The following pictures I did take however :D)