“Beautiful buildings are more than scientific…they are true organisms, spiritually conceived; works of art…” – Frank Lloyd Wright
I read today that Frank Lloyd Wright’s roofs leak too.
That rain spills into the organic curves of his soaring ceilings.
That these fissures drip amidst a long list of structural failings.
That his houses required secret steel supports
because people just weren’t meant to live within waterfalls.
And the difference between architecture and construction
is that stone and brick and wood have to sing.
But sometimes they aren’t always sound.
And I am comforted by the inadequacy of his sacred spaces;
his unique symphony modified by durability, by utility.
I stare at the page and I am happy I can think this
through my unfocused fog, auric storm,
and drilling ache that has outstayed its welcome
in a well-designed lodging that’s now showing its cracks.
And I question the integrity of my ventral interior,
the aesthetic placement of my optic stalk,
the flawed sections of all my little rooms, and I wonder
how it still wonders, still creates
because despite this pain, thoughts keep forming, keep falling
like water through the shingles of this unsound home.
Victoria Nordlund teaches creative writing at Rockville High School in Vernon, CT. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut. Her work is currently published in the Fall/Winter issue of PANK Magazine. She is the 2016 NEATE New England Poet of the Year and took first place in the CWP’s poetry contest. Her work will also be published in Amaryllis and Strange Poetry. Victoria is part of a wonderful writing group, The Wordsong Poets.
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