Open the Door
January 26th 2009 20:09
The rain cascades in sheets of glass,
And knocks to be allowed herein.
The house is locked; no storm can pass
Through walls that guard the halls within
The place where shadows sit on the bed,
Dusty and dry like buried dreams
And curtains are closed like eyes that dread
Let’s let the rain in, let’s open the door
Will you stay dry as you have before?
Where is the key? It’s on the floor
Come and help me open the door
The sun is rising; the night is over.
Pools of water sparkle and glow;
Beads of rain have crowned the clover
And kissed the lilies that sway below
The blooming tree that grows in Canaan
Sitting in your dusty room,
You missed the storming flood that came in
Tears from God to slow our doom.
Let’s let the rain in, let’s open the door
Will you stay dry as you have before?
Where is the key? It’s on the floor
Come and help me open the door
Your father arrives to see if you’re well;
He knocks on the door and calls your name.
“Your birthday’s today; now come out and tell
Your father why you’re hiding in shame.”
You shuffle through the dust and grime
to turn the key to open the door.
The rusty knob won’t turn; in time
You know the truth that was there before:
The door is stuck.
Let’s let him in, let’s open the door
Give him the key that’s on the floor
Come and help him open the door
I wrote this poem for it to be able to be put to music. Whether this final product would sound good with music to it is debatable; I guess it depends on what kind of music is used. The message of the poem is a decidedly Christian one, cemented by the "father" theme presented at the end. I usually try to keep my thematic material on the track of what theologists call 'general revelation,' that is, stuff in nature or in life in general that, when examined closely, offers epiphanies and revelations. But I couldn't stay away from the subject that is the foundation of this poem.
That subject is baptism. Baptism, technically, refers to the Christian ritual of application or full immersion in water as a symbol of one's entry into the family of the Church. It has a couple other definitions which I like, such as a trying or purifying experience or initiiation, and a purification of thought and character. I use the image of baptism in a lot of my poetry, turning it to more rhetorical/poetic usages than the specific way it is used in religion.
I used meter and rhyme to make this poem sound musical, but it also doesn't fit with any specific form that already exists, except maybe just a really long sonnet with no couplet. I generally stuck to an iambic feel (since music is usually iambic--it just sounds nice), but I didn't limit myself to only 10 syllables per line; some lines are only 6 syllables, while some are 11. But the general flow of the words and ideas (I hope) make up for the irregularities.
In some of the irregular lines I substituted iambs for trochees and anapests (DAda and dadaDA, respectively). For example, the first line of the refrain ("let's let the rain in, let's open the door") consists of an iamb and an anapest, another iamb and another anapest (let's LET the rain IN, let's OPen the DOOR). Of course, my scansion--my metrical analysis of verse--might differ somewhat from what other people might think. It depends on how you say the line. I may be biased, since I wrote the poem, and think that line goes daDAdadaDA, daDAdadaDA.
I also might be confusing accentual verse with quantitative verse. Accentual verse refers to the amount of emphasis or volume a syllable has, whereas quantitative verse refers to the actual amount of time each syllable takes up. Accentual= daDAdaDA; Quantitative= dadaadadaa. It's pretty hard to tell the difference between the two--for me, at least.
The best idea to see if you've got your scansion down right, and if the meter and flow of youre poem is what you want it to be, is to have a friend read it out loud. Listen for peaks and valleys in the sound of his or her voice, and if he or she pauses where you wanted there to be a pause. If the reader gets tripped up and stumbles over words or hesitates, then that section probably needs to be revised. Of course, if you intended for that part of the poem to feel uncomfortable and hesitant, then you did a good job. Sometime's it's good to get a second opinion.
Hope you enjoyed my poem and discussion. Have a nice day and keep a wary eye out for poetry.
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