Analysis - "Humble House"

“Humble House” by David Baker seems to be telling the story of a house where a family, and perhaps generations of that family, have lived – not resided, but actually lived. The house, which is well-used and functional, mirrors the traits of the people who have lived there. The most underutilized house in the room is the sitting room, where ironically, no one sits; this room, stuffed with figurines, old plates and photos, and plastic-covered chairs is an artifice, in a way, and doesn’t reflect the real character of its inhabitants. It is avoided in favor of the other rooms, like the kitchen or the side porch, where people actually “live” – swing, smoke, sew, talk, drink coffee. The artificial room is not only not used, it is avoided. Toward the end of the poem, those in the house head “to our places…where the creek cuts through the graves,” where their family members are awaiting them.
I think that David Baker, through the imagery of the house and the cemetery, is suggesting that the spirit will live on infinitely. I’m led to believe this because of the journey to the graveyard at the poem’s end, but find hints throughout the poem.
First, the figurines in the room where nobody goes are tarnished, old, unpolished. The room itself is said to be for “the passing of the spirit world through the spirit of the house.” This leads me to believe, in tandem with the previous line, “Perhaps company will come soon, unannounced – “that there has been a recent death in the family. Maybe in some way the house is representative of the human body, which is a temporary stop for the spirit of a person, and the sitting room is representative of our avoidance of death – we would rather go on living than to be reminded of our own mortality.
The language describing the room as the place for “the passing of the spirit world” is mirrored in the description of the cemetery, where the whole family is waiting, “Passing toward home.” Earlier, the poet says, “Soon enough we will go to our places, down the road, where the creek cuts through the graves. “ This leads me to believe that their burial spots were, again, another temporary home and that Baker was extending the house/spirit imagery. Suggesting to me, like the house and the body are temporary stops, so is the cemetery, because, the body is not going to stay in the grave any more than a spirit will stay in the house. When the people make the journey to the cemetery, they will meet the “whole family” waiting for them, “passing toward home.” With the assistance of “worm and mole, creeper and clod,” they are becoming “humus, loam.”
I don’t know if I’m reaching here, but it seem to me that the poem then comes full-circle, like a life. The poem begins with references to the lawn, cramped with “hydrangeas, white heirloom lilies, wild creeper roses.” The repetition of “creeper” in the last line makes me believe that, kind of like Whitman, Baker is suggesting that nothing dies, everything goes onward, and to die is different than anyone supposes. By dying, the people are fertilizing the ground in which the plants will grow, giving a piece of themselves to the land in perpetuity, becoming a part of everything that grows and living eternally through that cycle.