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Empty House
Faith Shearin’s The Empty House is a book of transitions, of comings and goings, of walks through memory and “I have lived in many houses/ I did not own or tend them; I was just/ passing through/already in the next place/before I left the first.” These skillful poems invite the reader on the journey they evoke.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
18 people want to read
About the author
Faith Shearin
12 books12 followersFaith Shearin is the author of six books of poetry. Her work has been frequently featured by Garrison Keillor on “The Writer’s Almanac.” She is the recipient of awards from The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work also appears in The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary Poets and in Good Poems, American Places. She lives with her husband, her daughter, and a small, opinionated dachshund, in a cabin on top of a mountain in West Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 26, 2015
I liked this collection of poems okay, but I liked Shearin's first collection a little bit better. This collection of poems focused more on motherhood and marriage, which were fine, but I had a harder time connecting to these topics.
My favorites:
Why the Dog Digs
Safety, 1975
Paddles
My favorites:
Why the Dog Digs
Safety, 1975
Paddles
May 4, 2023
What impresses me most about Faith Shearin’s collection The Empty House (Word Press, 2008) is her ability to write about familiar moments in surprising ways. C. S. Lewis describes friendship as beginning with “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.” Shearin’s poems often give me this “you too” moment. Her work makes me feel more fully connected to the human experience—whether through humor, grief, doubt, or curiosity—and also leaves me with clear metaphors which provide new perspectives through which to see the world anew.
My favorite example of Shearin using humor to this effect is in “At the Museum.” Shearin writes about the experience of children being enthralled by nude art during a school trip to a museum. One consistent characteristic of her form in this collection is that near the end of the poem the speaker often “tells” the audience directly how she is feeling, which is often the death of a poem. She explains, “Our earthly humanity is so embarrassing.” Yet Shearin’s work routinely uses her prose-like lines as a jumping off point for her final transcending metaphor: “the trees outside so full of buds / and flowers and pollen that my eyes blush.” Shearin goes beyond poetic cuteness by reminding us that some perspectives we hold as adults are actually childlike—that these private childlike curiosities remain into our adulthood.
Thematically, the book collects poems about moving towns, marital expectations, the arrival of children, balancing art with life, family history, among others. The strongest of these work toward the reader discovering a newfound empathy through story, such as is in “Living History.” This narrative poem expresses the speaker’s frustration with unexpected marital expectations. Unlike many feminist poems, Shearin avoids a preach tone or heavy pathos through the use of good storytelling. The speaker is candid about feeling “as selfish as an uncut flower,” as “remak[ing] / my life was to dismiss” the women’s lives who raised her. A poem this sympathetic would even make my now deceased great grandfather reconsider his views on women’s roles. Any poem that evokes the image of a heart is oftentimes dismissed as “sentimental,” but when the speaker states “that broke my heart,” I believe her. In this way I compare Shearin’s art to Ted Kooser’s, who has the skill to use images deemed “cliche” or feelings shunned as “sentimental” to great effect.
The poem “Shadows” is a standout from the entire book. If you’ve read Mary Oliver, Shearin’s final line “When the day is long I walk inside myself” might feel familiar. In the poem Shearin meditates on the nature of shadows, “Their size determined by light” and uses the image of a shadow that is cast across the speaker’s family to not only examine the isolated human life from which it extends but also the human condition of isolation itself.
Overall, my non-English major parents would enjoy these poems—so would my high school students. Shearin has insights as fun as Billy Collins, is as self introspective as Mary Oliver, and can turn a metaphor as clear as Ted Kooser. As a high school and college English teacher, I can use many of these poems to teach how poems function—how metaphors can transcend. If you are looking for poems that you have to interpret, because of their vagueness or density, these poems are not for you. If you are looking for poems to understand and relate to, Faith Shearin’s The Empty House will be a welcome addition to your poetry bookshelf.
My favorite example of Shearin using humor to this effect is in “At the Museum.” Shearin writes about the experience of children being enthralled by nude art during a school trip to a museum. One consistent characteristic of her form in this collection is that near the end of the poem the speaker often “tells” the audience directly how she is feeling, which is often the death of a poem. She explains, “Our earthly humanity is so embarrassing.” Yet Shearin’s work routinely uses her prose-like lines as a jumping off point for her final transcending metaphor: “the trees outside so full of buds / and flowers and pollen that my eyes blush.” Shearin goes beyond poetic cuteness by reminding us that some perspectives we hold as adults are actually childlike—that these private childlike curiosities remain into our adulthood.
Thematically, the book collects poems about moving towns, marital expectations, the arrival of children, balancing art with life, family history, among others. The strongest of these work toward the reader discovering a newfound empathy through story, such as is in “Living History.” This narrative poem expresses the speaker’s frustration with unexpected marital expectations. Unlike many feminist poems, Shearin avoids a preach tone or heavy pathos through the use of good storytelling. The speaker is candid about feeling “as selfish as an uncut flower,” as “remak[ing] / my life was to dismiss” the women’s lives who raised her. A poem this sympathetic would even make my now deceased great grandfather reconsider his views on women’s roles. Any poem that evokes the image of a heart is oftentimes dismissed as “sentimental,” but when the speaker states “that broke my heart,” I believe her. In this way I compare Shearin’s art to Ted Kooser’s, who has the skill to use images deemed “cliche” or feelings shunned as “sentimental” to great effect.
The poem “Shadows” is a standout from the entire book. If you’ve read Mary Oliver, Shearin’s final line “When the day is long I walk inside myself” might feel familiar. In the poem Shearin meditates on the nature of shadows, “Their size determined by light” and uses the image of a shadow that is cast across the speaker’s family to not only examine the isolated human life from which it extends but also the human condition of isolation itself.
Overall, my non-English major parents would enjoy these poems—so would my high school students. Shearin has insights as fun as Billy Collins, is as self introspective as Mary Oliver, and can turn a metaphor as clear as Ted Kooser. As a high school and college English teacher, I can use many of these poems to teach how poems function—how metaphors can transcend. If you are looking for poems that you have to interpret, because of their vagueness or density, these poems are not for you. If you are looking for poems to understand and relate to, Faith Shearin’s The Empty House will be a welcome addition to your poetry bookshelf.
July 15, 2013
One of "writer's Almanac" favorite poets, Faith Shearin is justifiably popular in the little world of poetry. She writes from life with a wry and clear eye for the magic in the normality of life. What is most endearing about this book is tat the poems never feel forced or run though the "poetic terms" machine. You never get the feeling she is trying too hard.
For instance, she has a lovely little poem about how children in an art museum view the nudes as deliciously naughty: "For them, the museum is comedy." Her images are fresh and real. In another poem she writes: "Sculptors dug holes in shadow so they might/ pull them like fish from the mud... "
I've read two other books of hers and she never disappoints. This is poetry that means something. Buy his book o that he will publish more.
For instance, she has a lovely little poem about how children in an art museum view the nudes as deliciously naughty: "For them, the museum is comedy." Her images are fresh and real. In another poem she writes: "Sculptors dug holes in shadow so they might/ pull them like fish from the mud... "
I've read two other books of hers and she never disappoints. This is poetry that means something. Buy his book o that he will publish more.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews