Poem: Bricks

The luxury of idle contemplation is a new and very valuable experience.

Bricks My aloneness washes over me like a warm friend with kind words over coffee, supporting me with ageless friendship Thoughts spun out in solitude, the road  full of welcome detours, idle contemplation, piles of bricks, to see what arrangement builds a home No time earlier to peer inside a brick, study fissures, examine the aggregate, speculate among the cracks and crevices hot from the kiln and cooling in my mind One laid upon its brother frames a wall Mortar slowly set and rich with recollection, some joints struck, others trowelled A journeyman’s hand to hold the blade If walls close out, they close in as well Protection from the breath of wolves, constructing rooms grown soft and warm, where candlelight throws long shadows

This poem is included in Jim Freeman's poetry collection THE SMELL OF TWEED AND TOBACCO available here in print or as an e-Book in your favorite formats.