Listening to the Walls Talk

Dear Diary,

Definitely small car warnings posted yesterday as the high winds buffeted my car all the way to Portland but it was worth it and the frigid temperatures to spend a couple of hours at the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house.  We sat in different rooms to gather inspiration for our poetry, surrounded by Longfellow's possessions, listening to the walls talk to us.

You didn't know that walls could talk?  Oh, they do, volumes.  Despite being in the very heart of Portland's busy Congress Street, it is a hushed and evocative space.  Having a room all to myself was heavenly.  This image was made in his front parlor.  That is a bust of Longfellow as a young man.  Longfellow is Maine's own poet laurate although Maine has been home to many writers and poets over the years.  Richard Blanco, the Maine poet who read his work at President Obama's inauguration is one of my favorites.