Walled
with 'House', by Sandy Florian
A shack in a series of shacks. With nooks and garrets and stairs. This is
your corner of the world. Thick with suspicious walls. Or. I am backpedaling
through my Motionless Childhood. For. A box for the keeping of birds. — Sandy Florian
Metaphortography offers a quick dose of visual and literary inspiration to launch your writing week. This is the Monday section of Aimee Liu’s MFA Lore. Our Wednesday section is Writer In The World, a curated collection of essays on the writing life by acclaimed MFA faculty and alumni. Writers in Conversation and other MFA Lore essays on the craft and business of creative writing will drop each Saturday.
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House*
A building for habitation and habit. Or. Headquarters of a domicile. A dwelling place of a family. Or. A structure that serves as shelter. As. A burrow or nest or cave. A shack in a series of shacks. With nooks and garrets and stairs. This is your corner of the world. Thick with suspicious walls. Or. I am backpedaling through my Motionless Childhood. For. A box for the keeping of birds. A place of worship. As. A church. Entertainment. As. A tavern. For. To be quit of you I confine myself to the house. Or. I am living alone in such emptiness. Burying my Lares in the basement. But. If this house should come to ruin, I am trying hard to fix the dispersed days. When you haunted this house of horror. Or. I am furnishing my house with memory. As. Locomotives and other forgettings. Inmates collectively. For. A daughter who brings the house down. The harder shell of a snail. Or. A tortoise. As. The swallow builds its own indent. Of wood, or stone, or clay. Protection from weather. Protection again from time. The first principle of architecture From which all things extend. But. Until you hit the boy in the back with a bottle, this is but a barroom box. Where six tall men play gilded guitars. Two which ways and ever which time. For. These are my lullaby lies. And. This house has memory of home. The I and the not I. As. Protection of I. Divisions of the brain. For. A receptacle of any kind. A twelve parts of heaven. Or. The entire sky. Excepting parts that never rise. For. A sign of the zodiac is considered the seat. Where artificers may be heard. But If seven children play at house, fireside things lie in the brush. Or. What is more beautiful than a road? A roof and a roost. A den and my digs. I am confined as by illness. To stay in this house without purpose.
Sandy Florian was born in New York to parents of Colombian and Puerto Rican heritage and raised in Latin America. She earned an MFA from Brown University and a PhD from the University of Denver. Her collections include the novella Boxing the Compass (2013), which launched the Akrilica series, a collaboration between Noemi Press and Letras Latinas; On Wonderland & Waste (2010); Prelude to Air from Water (2010); The Tree of No (2008); Telescope (2006); and the chapbook 32 Pedals & 47 Stops (2007).
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August 12, 2025 (Tues), 4:00 pm PT: Authors Unfiltered on Niche Writing
September 23, 2025 (Tues), 3:00 pm PT: Authors Unfiltered on Author Platforms
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