Portholes (Thursday Doors)

Consider the hole.

Its roundness, its nothingness, its betweenness.
Its way of seeing through you.

Does it need to be filled?
Or is it merely a transitioning space?
Which side is in, which side is out?

Here are two portholes–their vessel is a house.
The port of the hole comes from the French word “porte”.
A linguistic door opening between two worlds.

Echoed portals hover above and below.
Twin passageways—what enters?  what departs?

Who can define where the journey intersects?

These unusual doorways caught my eye the other day when I was out walking. Notice that not only are there elaborate portholes above the door, but there are also simpler ones above the top floor windows. I also like the transom openings above the windows on the parlour and top floors. The rest of both houses are fairly simple, but those details make them stand out.

I wonder if the architect, Horace Edward Hartell, had a love of the sea, since he also put shells at the top of the door decorations. These mirror twins, built in 1894, were the only houses listed under his name on the Landmarks website. The one on the left, which seems to be under construction, sold for five million dollars in 2016. Before that it was divided into a multi-unit rental. The one on the right has two apartments, although they seem to be occupied by stable residents, as none were listed recently. Perhaps the owner occupies one of the units.

I also like the garden floor window details on the right house. It’s door porthole seems to contain some kind of decorative glass as well.

I started writing a poem about all the different kinds of holes there are awhile ago, but I can’t remember which of my many writing books it’s in. Still, I continue to think about them. I was delighted to find that the port in porthole comes from the French word for door. Doors and holes have many similar symbolic associations.

And for many different kinds of doors, you can always check in with host Dan Antion at Thursday Doors.