Artwork > Linocuts

HOW WE BUILT OUR HOUSE

~ for Leslie

We built our house of wind and salt,
of seeing and touching. Our shovels

bit in, our wooden-handled hammers
beat rhythms. We learned berm,

window spacing, roof pitch. We
chain-sawed joists to length, then

spiked with a kind of awe at our
dexterity. We felt the mystery of plumb,

and when rains blew in we smelled
the pine. The rafters became our heart

and we nailed high the green bough.
Now grace shines off the gray metal

roof and together we listen to the barred
owl’s call, watch the blossoming peach.

Thomas R. Moore