PROMPT # 341 – HOME IS WHERE THE POEM IS

/ Poetic Bloomings

We’re giving the heart a break (not as in broken heart, but as a rest) when we say the title of this prompt. Your poem is inspired by someplace close to your – heart (break’s over). Take the place you were born, where you grew up, or somewhere you lived, and use it is the base of your poem. If this place is famous for something, write that poem. I was born in Lackawanna, New York and for the longest time it was a steel town. So, Lackawanna Steel became my title/topic. You can take this poem anywhere you want and you’ll never leave home. Write that home pome!

MARIE’S HOME:

The Heart of it All (Fibonacci)

Home
Is
The state
Of my heart:
Heart-shaped Ohio.
“Ohio, The Heart of It All,”
Is more than its slogan, to me. It’s a certainty
Born of dappled sunlight, porch swing swishes, marching bands, sure love, and lingering laughter.

© Marie Elena Good, 2021

(Bummer. My final line, written in 21 syllables, breaks up on site.)

WALT’S PLACE:

LACKAWANNA STEEL

Lackawanna was home long before I knew I’d roam,
and find another place that fills this space in my heart,
From my start I was forged in Lackawanna Steel; a real
sense of structure and foundation built upon the
rigid girders of steel. Bethlehem Steel gave us all we had,
or all that Dad earned to set us up to succeed.
He worked hard and lived harder with liquor the answer,
and a demise from cancer. The plant had long since closed,
and I suppose it was just as well. The swell of steel workers
had found a similar fate, much too late to save them.
But this steel town outside of Buffalo, found itself
deeply seeded in each native son’s hearts. From the start
they were all “Men of Steel” good to feel at home
just south of where the Buffalo roam!

© Walter J Wojtanik – 2021

238 thoughts on “PROMPT # 341 – HOME IS WHERE THE POEM IS”

  1. Marie and Walt…I might not always post, but I always enjoy reading your poems. These are two of your best. Hugs to you, both. 4th of July blessings!!

    Southie

    Sitting on the stoop was a fine art here.
    Nanas, Mommas and Aunties would gather
    Kids raced up and down the sidewalk
    wheels strapped to their feet,
    key swinging from their necks –
    faster than lightening!
    Each corner held emporiums of necessities –
    grocery, baker, pharmacy, laundry, tailor shop,
    and the taverns – haunts of fathers and uncles –
    the rich, pungent scent of beer and whiskey,
    smoke and sweat wafting out open doors on summer days.
    Churches rose like scattered wildflowers,
    dividing the streets into parishes – mostly Irish Catholic.
    However, one street boasted a Russian Orthodox church,
    another a Baptist and tucked back in the brick and macadam
    of the projects, a Lithuanian church and school where the sounds of a language
    unfamiliar rose above the hubbub of the city.
    Streets were numbered and lettered or named after war heroes.
    The further into the alphabet and the higher the number,
    the closer to the ocean, where we spent summers swimming.
    At night, families walked the beach from Carson to the Castle.
    Stops along the way for treats of French fries (hand-cut, not frozen)
    or ice cream or, on very special occasions, fried clams.
    The truth of “you can’t go home” is apparent now.
    Families have scattered throughout New England and beyond.
    Three-decker homes that housed entire families –
    grandparents, their children and their children –
    are now multi-million dollar condos, housing the urban elite
    with pampered pedigree pouches, designer clothes and no clue
    of the rich heritage they have co-opted.
    © 2020 Linda M. Rhinehart Neas

    • Thank you for your kind words, Linda! So good to see you again, here!

      Your poem took me right there with you. The details of a long-gone rich life of possibly meager means. Wonderful! At this stage in my life, it would do us all well to have one of those 3-decker homes for multiple generations of us. That, along with all the walking-distance amenities of life .., for so many reasons. Love this poem!

    • I am impressed, deeply, buy this poem, part;y for the excellent writing, and partly because I know a little about Boston; I have family who live there, and they’ve showed me some of the gentrified areas, around Mission Hill anyway.

      • (Sigh), let’s try again:

        I am impressed, deeply, by this poem, partly for the excellent writing, and partly because I know a little about Boston; I have family who live there, and they’ve showed me some of the gentrified areas, around Mission Hill anyway.

    • This reminded me of the first town we lived in, and I know that sadness you mention… for mountain land has been gobbled up without knowing the history that is lost. I loved this poem from the first line to the last… and that sadness in those last words are so true.

    • Thank you all for your kind words. I love Poetic Bloomings, but don’t get here as often as I would like…calls to duty that eat up my time.

      Marie, I agree. There was something about living in a three-decker with multi-generations that made life rich, even when those families were not related by blood.

      Happy 4th to all!

  3. HOME IS WHERE THE HEART HAS ALWAYS BEEN

    I was born in the minefields of a dysfunctional family,
    making my home from one explosion to the next.

    Until you learned to avoid the hazardous places—
    One wrong misstep and you were blown into the next,
    in smithereens.

    I was raised in the rank and file of anger, mistrust,
    and the deadly streets of northeastern Ohio.

    I cut my teeth under the hands and beef of a bully—
    an older brother, and a militant mother, learning to wade
    in the deep trenches of psychological warfare.

    Home is always where the heart is. Even when it’s in midst
    of the battlefield.

    You can bring a soldier home, but he’s already
    made his bed in the midst of war.

    Benjamin Thomas

  4. THE END OF THE MEAL TICKET

    When I was young, my mother used to say,
    “The day will come when you must make your way;
    you’ll need a steady job with steady pay,
    so go to work for Kodak.”

    Almost as though in step with drum and fife,
    in Rochester it was a way of life
    for many a man and, often, for his wife
    to go to work for Kodak

    and know security was guaranteed.
    Even Xerox people would concede,
    the Eastman firm took care of every need
    of those who worked for Kodak.

    But that was then. These days, at Kodak Park,
    the former sea of buildings now is stark
    and vacant space, an exclamation mark
    for all who trusted Kodak.

    The city I called home, “Smugtown” to some,
    now bears a countenance careworn and glum;
    there’s little reason now to beat its drum
    and little left of Kodak.

    • Someday, if I ever travel again, I am goin* to make my way to the Finger Lakes, where dear friends abide, and I would enjoy getting to swing up to your area and have you point out the memories which vacant lots can’t reveal. This piece perfectly commands that.

    • again there is a sadness… and this made me smile for a co worker of mine told her son…
      “When you turn 18 you are on your own.” He went into the navy and made a career…

    • William, this poem speaks a universal truth that so many cities have witnessed…the fall of the economic giant that ran everything. What saddens me most is that, many of the giants still fared well, but for those who worked for the giant, life as they new it disappeared, never to return again.

    • Very familiar with the Kodak and Kodak Park History. Aside from what you’ve explained, they were a huge customer of our for years, and then one day, they just vanished.Nicely done, Bill.

  5. Walt, your poem strikes me as a love note. A friend worked for Bethlehem Steel, so I have some sense of what it was like. Wonderful writing.

  6. Marie, your poem strikes me as a perfect use of teh form, the site’s limitations notwithstanding. That last line is a poem all its own, in my view.

  7. Retrospective

    So I pull up a picture
    just by putting in the address
    find it listed on Zillow again
    all buttoned up in dark
    brown shakes: the toolshed
    the quasi patio jutting east
    from the toolshed wall
    the front boasting a new door
    cut into what used to be
    the north kitchen wall’s little window
    where I sat at what we called
    the Little Table and drew the
    Golden Gate Bridge with dinner plates
    The original front door reduced
    to yet another window all white trim

    I sort out the bricked sidewalk with its
    infamous curve where I wiped out on skates
    and pogo stick but it’s the trees I count
    the walnut still standing and the forsythia
    refusing to die in yellow bloom along the fence
    and the fence still standing its hurricane weave
    resisting all elements over the five decades

    something rushes over me like unexpected white
    water on a rapids run as I examine rooflines
    that used to be a mix of blue and green shingles
    whatever Daddy could lay his hand to at the time
    and I try to feel whatever they call nostalgia
    but it’s not here in this tombstone
    and I don’t save the picture.

  8. Homegrown

    I was born In Milwaukee, Wis,
    but, brother let me tell you this,
    every piece of growth I’d make
    was fostered near Okauchee Lake.
    There were elm trees then,
    before the disease,
    and for the first ten years,
    it was a life of peace and ease.
    They still do fish fry
    on Friday nights,
    make Old Fashioned’s,
    dim the lights,
    but now it’s not perch,
    mostly frozen cod,
    too many potato choices,
    and yes, by God,
    they also serve- and this
    should be against the law,
    healthy salads instead of
    that creamy cole slaw.
    Sundays were church and a picnic,
    folks needing a breather,
    but no picnics during the winter,
    and sometimes, not the church part either.
    The elm trees are gone now,
    but even so,
    there are others we planted before
    we knew the elms would go.
    No one talked about social issues,
    I guess for that time it was all right,
    racism was not yet a topic,
    the neighbors were, of course, all white.
    We were worried about the Russkies,
    some built shelters underground,
    but as far as I know,
    no Red Scare was ever found.
    We had other things to fear,
    like polio and iron lungs and braces,
    or the drunken dentist or smoking doctor,
    mumbling, blowing smoke into our faces.
    The lake had its mysteries,
    ate a person or two every year,
    but we all learned to swim early on,
    so we had nothing to fear.
    That lake was everything to us,
    source of fun and food,
    a place of joyful recreation,
    nothing about it that wasn’t greater than good.
    For my first ten years there,
    it was all smiles, never a frown.
    To this day, decades on, I remain grateful
    for Okauchee, my hometown.

  9. THE RUBBER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

    It was the promise of work that plucked two sets
    of grandparents from the wiles of Oklahoma
    and the southern state of Mississippi.

    They made the long trek heading northeast
    and converged at the rubber capital of the world.

    Business was booming and Goodyear tires kept
    this city on the map for many years to come.

    Great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,
    mom and dad, all sprung from this city.

    It became the capital of our family’s history
    and the central springboard to spread like wildfire
    across the nation.

    The Midwest is just how we roll.

    Benjamin Thomas

  10. So enjoyed your poems today, Walt and Marie. Your images were beautiful and clear and the topic today is so dear to reflect on, thank you!

    THE BEACH WITHIN REACH

    A small California beach town
    Still lives in my heart
    The start
    For us all
    Five generations back
    The family arrived,
    Survived, thrived,
    And we called it home
    The year I was born
    My grandfather started a business,
    We still run today
    Where we learned to play
    On the sand
    On the Boardwalk
    In the surf
    Like our own private turf
    A monument to the family
    And yet an offering
    To other families, too
    As it grew
    The following generations
    On their way too
    They know just what to do,
    The beach is the playground,
    They found.
    Still safe and sound,
    Still their beach within reach
    Where they can teach
    Their own children
    To play in the surf
    Watching over their turf
    By a sea
    Always in motion
    Yet never changing
    For them
    Through all the sands
    Of endless
    Family
    Time.

    (c) Janet Rice Carnahan 2021

  11. Marie and Walt I love your poems… they are so true to your individual selves .

  12. Born of the Mountain II

    I was born of the mountains.
    Ma often said they kept me too long there.
    I can speak an Appalachian dialect,
    With words most would not understand.
    A latch pin is a safety pin,
    And proud means glad…
    Just in case you are wondering…

    I grew up with ordinary people
    Who told the best stories.
    I heard people pull out their fiddle,
    And heard Da play his harmonica.
    We swapped tales, and
    Understood that life could be hard,
    That was what the Good Lord was for
    To get us through those hard times.

    Outsiders saw us ignorant,
    But we just shook our heads,
    Cause it is their recollection of us,
    Not how we knew we were.

    I heard a man, on that PBS
    On the east side of the mountain,
    Brag that there are no mountain people
    Left in their county.
    I got my revenge,
    I created an imaginary town
    And put a whole town full of mountain people
    In that very county.

    I am said to be a loyal person.
    It is the code I learned in childhood,
    And somehow or other I became,
    A foreigner in my own family
    As I became more ingrained
    It what it means to be Appalachian.

    I like the tales of haints and ghosts and
    Those tall tales that make your eyes get big,
    And you can feel your heart pumping loud
    In your chests, and you know that
    Daddy may have killed the buggerman last night,
    But that did not mean his kin wasn’t out there waiting.

    I am a mountain woman,
    Who lives in a proper civilized southern town.
    Sometimes I have shocked a person
    Without meaning to do so.
    Those times Ma would shake her head,
    And say agin, “We kept you too long in the mountains.”

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 4, 2021

    “Ain’t no buggerman out tonight, Daddy kilt him last night” is a game I grew up playing. It is basically a game of tag… Agin is the sound of speaking again… there is a difference in Haints and ghosts… basically haints can be the mean kind and ghost are just there. Recollection and perception can at times be interchangeable… I didn’t put it here but years can mean ears… Ifin you said, “My years are hurting.” You would know that it was your ears. Most of this is dying out which makes me sad…

    • This is the second poem with this title… thus the ii… The first is one of those poems I don’t know if I will ever finish…

      Born of the Mountains

      I was born of the mountains
      As the Moon is born of the sun-
      Captured in the sun’s light
      Freed from Darkness-
      I was captured in the dark earth-
      The smell of the deep woods,
      The cool sweetness of a mountain spring-
      I heard the wind in the balsams,
      And saw that moon rise above them all,
      I was born there in those mountains.

      But I have wandered far
      From those mountains that birthed me.
      I return over an over—
      Only to leave again…

      But within me when I walk upon that earth
      I feel that strength that was birthed with me
      Grow stronger…
      And I know it always will..

      I was born of the mountains,
      And yes I will return
      To the mountains that birthed me
      And will eventually decay me.

      Mary Elizabeth Todd
      Written in 1983, April 1996, February 5, 1997 and July 8, 2013

    • I am intrigued by so much in these 2 poems. I’ll have to get back to you on these, Mary. I’ll message you. But in the meantime, just know that the story telling, visual, mood … this is where you are at your best, IMHO.

  13. When there is no home…
    ( for the foster children)

    Children, children removed from their homes.
    Living with strangers, knowing but not understanding…
    Lost to their families, but not belonging…
    Being shuffled around, and their treasures
    Packed in black trash bags…
    Moving into a new home…
    Not understanding why they had to move…
    Feeling they were one step farther
    Away from their home…
    A place that was not safe, but
    A place where they knew
    They belonged.
    Their few friends they had
    Long lost in the constant shuffling.
    Moved like chess pieces on an invisible board.
    Where is their heart… which time was it taken…
    Was it in their parents’ home… the place that wasn’t safe,
    But at least they were not lost…
    Lost in a system among many systems…
    All claiming to know what is best what is right…
    None of them hearing the lost child
    Where there is no place or no home…
    The only one that hears
    Is the one who sits beside them
    On their moves from place to place,
    Knowing what damage this new move will do…
    Knowing there was no perfect system
    Only imperfect ones pretending they are perfect.
    The listener is at the bottom of a chain
    That goes into a maze of systems
    And people who know nothing
    Yet they pretend that they do.

    Still the child sits riding in the car
    Wondering if the next house and family
    Will keep them and maybe instead of one step away
    Be one step closer to being home.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 4, 2021

      • Thank you… they truly are… there are about 400,000 in foster care in the USA. Most will go home eventually. Many will go to relatives. many will be adopted by their foster parents and a little less will be adopted by those wanting to adopt and waiting- foster parents now have fist dibs…when I started foster parents could have a child three to four years and if they were young children the adopting families got first choice. A huge majority of older children who can’t go home opt out of being adopted because a child twelve years old or older has to agree to be adopted. The majority of the children in foster care are African American children..

        • most states give very little help to those children aging out, and they sometimes age out to be homeless with little education or job skills and their families have moved away. They are slowly doing better… I have two boys I worked with now men whom I had to leave when I retired… one was in college and his worker that got the case after I retired did not do his job to make sure he stayed in college and it was paid for… that worker told me that he didn’t come to ask for help… I told him we were that child’s parents… we should have done that… I wanted to take these boys in but my mother was 90 and had dementia and I had to choose… I pray almost every day for my two boys.

    • The depth of sadness is so deep for even me, simply a read of words. I can’t imagine the strength you had to muster. Only God, I believe.

      • they do….I remember the first time I answered a question on the witness stand which others thought I should have said differently and I said it is the truth.. a lawyer asked me didn’t a move in foster care cause damage to a child, and I said yes because each move causes damage even a good move because you lose contact with friends, etc…

  14. Vacationland

    The natives call it Vacationland
    It’s written on their license plates
    And it certainly is Vacationland
    If you’re smart and pick the right dates
    For instance…..
    Summer is sometimes hot as can be
    With mosquitoes as big as your head
    But the beauty is undeniable
    And the sun will turn your skin red
    And…..
    Fall is the prettiest time of the year
    With every color adorning their trees
    But the nights can get a little bit nippy
    Jack Frost often hides in the breeze
    Still…….
    Winter is best for the kid in us all
    Giant sheets of white cover the land
    So pack up your parkas and bunny boots
    And some gloves so you don’t freeze your hands
    But, then……
    Spring is the time when life returns boldly
    New flowers, new grass, and green leaves
    The weather warms up and the snow melts
    Out come the shorts and short sleeves
    You see……
    Vacationland has four definite seasons
    So choose wisely when you make your plans
    Pack the right duds and have a lot of fun
    And enjoy your time in Vacationland
    I did…..

  15. Home
    (an Etheree)

    Home
    P A
    Trees, hills, creeks
    Country valley
    Goose ponds and peep frogs
    Outdoors in all weather
    Stilts, roller skates, pogo sticks
    Sleds, bikes, balls, and cardboard boxes
    Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents
    The whole neighborhood was one big playground.

  16. THE TIP OF THE SPEAR

    There—
    at the tip of the spear,
    is a place called home;
    on the edge of the pen
    still wet with ink.

    The world is ready
    to drink poetic wines.

    Our weighed thoughts,
    being fashioned into flowering
    vines.

    That climb the height of mountains,
    into lands and hills, growing into satisfying
    food for the people.

    Benjamin Thomas

  17. HOME IS SERVICE TO THE PEN

    There is a duty
    to put pen to the page.
    To craft the unimaginable.
    Unleash emotions out of the cage.
    To give sight to the things unseen.
    To give voice to the things unheard.
    To give the oppressed back their wings.
    To pen the fabulous beauty of the word.
    To grant perception to the once intangible.
    To give warmth of love to a cold, cold world.
    To paint the art of life which is most admirable.
    To show the darkness residing in human nature.
    To pen the light of day, hope, faith, and joy.

    Benjamin Thomas

  18. Lodi, Wisconsin

    Home of Suzi the Duck,
    she calls me back,
    this small town
    twenty-five miles
    away from Madison.
    She lies miles
    off expressways
    and tangles of traffic.
    She lies true to herself,
    soft conversations
    with the deli girl
    at the grocery store,
    truths and dreams
    revealed again and again,
    a drink at a bar that looks
    like a log cabin, a walk
    away from my motel room.
    There I interrupt
    country music on the juke box
    to play Paul McCartney
    and make the place my own.
    The motel owner and his wife
    treat me like a son
    every time I come.
    Wisconsin 113 winds
    its way past wooded hills
    to a ferry and a lake.
    Its history shimmers
    like a dream.

    Mike Bayles

  19. Home

    Home is where your family is.
    Except my family is gone,
    And I belong to no place,
    To no one.

    I read the words
    That Jesus said,
    “Foxes have holes,
    And birds have nests,”
    But he had no place to lay his head.

    I have a place to lay my head,
    The furniture is mine,
    The house is not…
    I live here for I have no place to go.

    Only when I am in the forest,
    Am I free.
    There I belong.
    There, I know is my home.

    My Grannie told me,
    They had to keep me…
    But I would never belong.
    I made my place…
    Despite her words,
    But now they are gone.
    You can’t talk of memories
    To graves and tombstones.
    They do not respond, and
    I walk away lonely.

    I used to dream of a place
    That was all my own.
    It would have trees,
    And a room for my art.
    There would be a place I could dance,
    There would be a big kitchen,
    And around my table
    Would be people I love.
    But dreams are often just
    Imagining of things that cannot be.

    But all this lonely wanderings
    Has left me strong,
    And made me kind…
    Not patient yet for
    Waiting is not an easy thing
    Me to do.

    I have struggled since
    The last of them died.
    Where is my home,
    Where do I belong.

    One morning as I cried,
    Into the morning fog.
    It lifted and I knew…
    For me my home is
    Within my heart…
    And it will go wherever I go.

    I hear the wind of change blowing,
    I know not where it will tell me
    Where I am to go, but
    I am listening,
    And know when I am told,
    I will go.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 5, 2021

  20. then after I wrote that poem… this happened and I have a smile in my heart…

    I Met a Young Chimney Swift

    This morning as I was getting my peaches
    Out to peel for my pie…
    I heard the flapping of wings,
    And there behind my mixer
    Was a tiny bird, who had made a wrong turn
    And flew down my chimney instead of up…

    He eyed me and must have thought
    How ugly this giant white monster was
    Who had no wings and was not soot black like he.

    “Oh, little bird, don’t be scared…
    Let me catch you
    So you can fly in the wind.”

    He didn’t trust me
    For I was this big white monster,
    And not pretty like his mama.

    It took a few minutes
    For me to catch the small chimney swift,
    And as I placed him gently on the deck…
    He took one look
    And decided I wasn’t a monster, and
    With one bat of his wings he lifted up,
    And away to the trees he did fly.

    I went back into my house,
    Smiling the small gift
    I was given this morning
    To release a bird
    Back into the outside
    With a lesson learned,
    That just because we are different,
    We can share the same space.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 5, 2021

  21. At Home
    At home
    in the crook of a tree
    in wildflower fields and clear cold creek,
    dancing in the stream,
    catching sunfish with bare hands,
    chasing beams of light across the hillside,
    splashing in mud puddles while it rained.

    At home
    in the stories others told,
    in the written word
    weaving fairytales of safety and belonging,
    inviting a little girl in to hope,
    tempting her to believe that
    a place of peace and safety existed beyond the pages of her book.

  22. The Poem Is

    This poem is . . .
    living on the streets
    of Brooklyn. Spin a
    top, string a yoyo.
    Roller skates of heavy
    steel. Clamps to adjust
    with a key. Skate away!

    This poem is . . .
    a grownup on the blocks
    of Brooklyn, where I
    lived in several
    apartments–old
    buildings with high
    ceilings, and large
    rooms.

    When people ask me
    where I’m from, Brooklyn
    is my answer. It has held
    my heart in its grip
    all these years.

  23. The Empty Side of the Bed,,,

    I have a friend,
    Whose husband has died,
    And she finds herself missing him,
    For he was her home.

    They had a good life together,
    But memories, I know, don’t fill the space
    Of the empty side of the bed.

    The days can be filled with chores,
    And children and grandchildren,
    But at night there is that empty
    Side of the bed, that leaves
    Her heart aching for the one
    Beyond her reach.

    Lovers in this life
    Are not like those in picture shows, but
    They are lived one day at time-
    With laughter and tears,
    And angers, and fears,
    And nights filled with sleeping close,
    Feeling the beat of another heart and
    The gentle breathing of sleep.
    It is not the passion,
    I have seen women miss, but
    Those moments of being close,
    And alone together
    In the comfort of their bed.

    I have never been fortunate-
    To have had a man
    Feel that my heart was his home,
    And his heart was mine.
    There has always been an empty side of the bed,
    When I lay down at night.
    I just know how empty that can feel,
    When you live alone,
    As I do.

    Tonight, even as weary as I am,
    I have had trouble sleeping,
    And I thought of my friend,
    Hoping she finds comfort-
    As she sleeps away the night…
    For her heart is still her husband’s home,
    And his heart is still hers.
    Death may have separated them,
    But love still remains.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 6, 2021

  24. To the man I loved once on his birthday…

    It has been over thirty years,
    Since we last spoke.
    I was grieving the loss of my father,
    And my mother needed me to stay.
    What was between us was dying,
    We just weren’t ready to say it,
    Until I did… I never forgot you.

    I was so lost that day,
    We met at a friend’s wedding.
    You were a world traveler, and
    I had never been anywhere.
    You laughed at my crazy story…
    I told of working for the mafia…
    (Well, I didn’t really, just was a shady business.)
    I said to you, I had my chance,
    To travel with business men,
    And wear jewels I couldn’t afford,
    But I turned it down.
    It was good money,
    I would have had an apartment and all,
    And traveled wherever they sent me, but
    They fired me.
    The only time I was fired-
    Until my mother fired me.
    Another story.

    I remember you on your birthday,
    And say a prayer for your life,
    To be good,
    For because you crossed my life,
    And helped me find who I was.
    That was the gift I needed.

    You told me once I was too gentle,
    For this world, and you were right-
    I was when we met,
    But I got stronger over the years,
    And my gentle heart still exists-
    As one of
    Those flowers that withstands the storms.

    It is late in the night, and I need to go to sleep…
    But I just wanted to say, “Thank you,”
    To the Cosmos for sending me what I needed that day,
    And giving me strength to end it.

    Maybe one day, you will see my book,
    On display in a bookstore, and
    Smile at the memories,
    And send prayers back to me,
    Knowing I have found my life to be good,
    And that choice to end it was right for both of us.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 6, 2021

      • Thanks… I have several poems I have written to him most back then, but occasionally now and then… he really did give me back my life… and it ended on a sad but understandable note.

      • thank you… He was a gift to my life… and one of the hardest choices I ever had to make concerned him. I decide to stay to care for my parents.. I did it for love. .no one knew how much I sacrificed…I do hope he had a good life…but for a season of my life was he there…

  27. That Christ may make his home in your hearts through faith…(Eph.3:17)

    THE CASTLE OF THE KING

    The heart is the highborn castle of the king.
    Its storied chambers encapsulates fine wisdom.
    Its halls run rampant with the gleam of wrought gold.
    An upright throne sits bedecked with intellect.
    Its crown of conscience is bejeweled
    in precious stone.
    The heart of man—
    is his home.

    Benjamin Thomas

  28. …there are so many silences to be broken.
    -Audre Lorde

    THE HOUSE OF THE BROKEN

    There are many silences to be broken.
    Its spell has been cast down upon the trodden,
    and served cold to the faint of heart.

    Their tongue has been brutally severed,
    stolen, rendered useless;
    their vocal cords have been ripped apart.

    There are many silences to be broken,
    but their voice has been silenced—by being broken.
    Their vessels lie in countless shards, hopelessly
    splintered into myriads of pieces.

    Benjamin Thomas

    • Just wow…. and it is true… those voices of the shattered…are often silent

  29. THE HOME THAT IS NEVER BUILT

    (For homeless children)

    Their house is impermanence.
    Their residence is in the wind.

    There is no ceiling to their suffering,
    nor wall to hide them from wandering.

    Their home is the one that is never built.
    Members of their household—rejection, shame and the razor of sharpened guilt.

    Benjamin Thomas

  30. This one is for those who suffer from PTSD.

    CELL BLOCK 99

    The confinement is real. Definite. Dark.
    The definition of friend or foe has been obscured.

    The dimensions of your cell block are 6 by 8 feet,
    your cell mates—fight, flight, or freeze.

    You walk about with a gun to the back of the head,
    a knife to the left, and a shotgun to the right.

    You never lose sight of them,
    and no one can see, or feel them—but you.

    It’s always work, pretending to be normal,
    but being under the imminent threat of death—
    is the new normal.

    Donning fading smiles like filthy raiment, that
    change from one moment to the next.

    The emanating stench of sweat, grime, and fear
    is nauseating; being drenched under the constant
    barrage of stress.

    Vicious memories from the past yield deadly weapons
    in the present, holding you hostage.

    This is your cell block.

    Dank.
    Dark.
    Home.

    Benjamin Thomas

    • Benjamin….I know this well…It is tiring to be like everyone else when you know you won’t… I stopped trying…I embraced the quirky me…the one that some times tears up because a memory flashes… or just needs to be alone when they come or sleep with noise to keep the dreams from grabbing me. I have a near photographic memory… I had to find ways to pick the lock on that cell to get out… I do odd things to protect myself… and I know mine is mild… I still don’t like my picture made because I see in my eyes the sadness…

        • Yeah it is….I have a cousin whose boyfriend attacked her for 10 hours, and her sister tells her to get over it… but it isn’t that you don’t want to get over it… but that you can’t…

  31. Beulah Land…

    My heart always longs for the land
    Once we called Beulah land, and
    My heart looks in hope
    Towards the Beulah Land
    I have yet to live…
    But know one day I will…

    The Beulah land of my youth,
    Is planted deep in my heart…
    Where everywhere I turned
    Stood ancient mountains
    That had stood for centuries
    And worn down by those many seasons.
    I miss those people that I loved so deeply.

    My home is somewhere else these days…
    I have lived as a stranger for many a year.
    But here my faith grew strong, and
    Found that it is here I belong, but
    When I sometimes catch a glimpse
    Of my beloved mountains,
    I feel a catch in my heart,
    And want to rush home.
    I will always long for that Beulah land…

    As I age, I find my eyes looking to beyond…
    To a place where beauty is everywhere, and
    Peace is forever in my heart…
    There I will gather with those I love…
    And have all those answers to my God questions-
    I have kept in an invisible box in my heart…
    There I will walk in meadows,
    In eternal light, and joy will flow down upon me.
    I will touch again touch the scars of my Savior,
    That I touched first the night
    When He told me I had more to do.
    I will wash His feet with my tears of joy.
    I will no longer be a wanderer,
    For I will be home….

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 7, 2021

    Beulah Land was once the state song of Tennessee, and that is my tribute to where my heart is always. Beulah Land is also for heaven…and in the night Oct 6, 2001, I was dying that night and the dead gathered to take me home, but then Christ walked over to me, and told me I could go but I had more to do. I struggled that night for people I loved were there and I had missed them one of which was my father. Around 4:30 AM, I heard my mother snore, and I knew I needed to stay for her. As they left, I felt my tears fall…years later I told Ma what had happened that night. She said, “Why didn’t you go with Joe, because you always loved him?” I said simply, “Ma, I loved you too.” Though the years have been difficult since then, I have never regretted staying and I know at 69 that I still have more to do in this life…I am not done with this life yet… I touched the scars that night.

    • This is very moving, and for me, “Beulah Land” has another connotation, of a place in the Pennsylvania mountains, the so-called “grand canyon” of Pennsylvania.

      • Thank you and I know what you mean… about we all have a Beulah Land in our heart…

  32. How dark was your home?

    If I had been brave…
    I would have asked Da…
    “Tell the truth,
    I need to know, how bad was
    It living in your home.?”

    I didn’t because I knew what he would do.
    He would go outside to water in his flowers,
    Pretend he didn’t hear,
    And
    I didn’t ask because I knew the answer.

    His sisters married young.
    They didn’t want to keep their mother long,
    The reason she lived with us most of the year.

    I never saw my father laugh
    With his mother about some childhood event.
    I didn’t see him talk with her,
    Or want to tell her his day.
    Instead. if he wanted to talk
    He said to my mother,
    “Let’s take a ride.”
    Sometimes they were gone-
    A short time, and
    Sometimes for hours.

    Da dreamed of retiring and coming back,
    To the place he called down home,
    But he had the house bulldozed,
    Where once he had lived.
    He left only the chimney,
    And a few doorknobs.
    The rest of it was razed.
    But the memories clung to him…

    They were not the kind that made you laugh.
    They were the stuff that made nightmares.
    They were what the children ran from the rest of their lives.

    One night I was talking to Ma
    About how hard my job was
    Working with children who were removed
    Because they were harmed.
    Da turned his face to stare at me,
    And a tear slipped from his eye.
    He got up and went outside-
    To water the azaleas
    Even though we had a good rain that day.
    Later he came back inside and said,
    “Louise, let’s go for a ride.”

    A man whose heart was so gentle
    That he was kind to all he met…
    May have cussed in his normal talking ways,
    But never cussed a person out.

    I never had to ask
    “How dark was it living in your home?”
    He spoke it never to me,
    But I know from the way my mother
    Felt sad, when they came back from a ride
    It was dark as a room with not a light,
    And no way to find the way out,
    But he did.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 7, 2021

      • Benjamin, as I was writing this poem I realized something I knew but never put to words and that was that my father never just sat down to talk to his mother… she was there in our house and he loved her on some level but he never confided in her… When my mother was pregnant with me… Grannie tried to get him to leave my mother and their children. I know that is why I was treated the way I was by her.

  33. THE POETRY SHACK

    Deep in seclusion,
    lost within the bowels of the forest;
    well off the beaten track,
    there lies a dilapidated shack.

    Its wisened wood well acquainted
    with years, aged in adversity, rustic
    in nature.

    It is said that an old man resides
    in that old shack—but that he never
    leaves, yet he never lacks, anything.

    He only cleaves to paper and pen,
    writing over and over again.

    His wild tears wet, run like a raging river,
    still unable to quench their flow.

    Funny they never saw him come or go,
    like he was a fixture in that old shack.

    Some say he’s only a myth, a legend,
    some even say he’s crazy.

    Though his muted words are never lazy,
    uttered through oracle of mind
    and pen.

    Whatever he thinks becomes the ink,
    at any given moment.

    Small, subtle, still moments captured
    in the wilderness of ecstasy.

    There’s nothing like the silence—
    whispering soundless volumes,
    deciphering untold secrets.

    Fleeting secrets kept in the wind,
    humming within the folds of autumn
    breezes.

    There’s no place like the deep forested
    bowels of imagination.

    Because there’s no place
    like home.

    Benjamin Thomas

  34. They said my baby wasn’t my heart…
    (for the parents of foster children)

    They took my child from me.
    He was just a baby boy.
    Sure, I took drugs.
    It wasn’t cause I wanted to,
    But they put their hooks in me
    When I had that wreck,
    And now I can’t escape.

    I know my baby’s crying for me.
    I did the best I could, and
    Where he slept is empty, and
    Tomorrow I’m getting evicted,
    And my food stamps are off, and
    So is my welfare… How am I to survive.

    When I knew I was having a baby,
    I tried to quit, but once he was born,
    That dealer came by and said,
    “I know you want some sugar.”
    And I did, Lord help me, I did.
    The dealer smiled his snake eyed smile,
    “I will give you some, if you do a few tricks for me.”
    I wanted to walk away, but I nodded my head,
    And said, let me go home, and I will.

    I tucked my baby in his crib, and
    Told him that mama will be right back,
    It was a lie that I believed.
    While I was walking the street,
    My baby began to cry for he was hungry.
    Someone called the law, and said I was out trickin’
    Which I was, but it was no business of theirs.

    Now all I want is my baby back,
    He was the best thing I ever did, and
    This woman is telling me I have to get off drugs,
    Do parenting classes, have a home, and a job.
    How am I gonna do that,
    When all I want is the next fix, and
    My baby back… I will do better,
    If you let him come home, but
    She tells me that isn’t gonna happen,
    Until I do all those things.
    She sees me crying,
    And I know she doesn’t have a heart.
    Doesn’t she know my baby is my heart.
    I stood up and looked at her, and said,
    “Go to he ll” More for me than for her…
    For I am already living there.

    Mary Elizabeth Todd
    July 8, 2021

    The hardest thing for me was working with the parents where most of them loved their children and wanted them back. My job was to help them get to a place they could get them back… I got cussed out a lot… some weeks it was several times a day. Got threatened a couple of times. But sitting across from a parent crying their heart out begging me to give their child or children back was the hardest… I understood their anger…

    • One of my dearest friends who worked with me asked me to write one about the parents… I read the other poem to her this morning…

      • for near 28 years… I bought out the last two months… gutted my heart…thanks for noticing the pain…

  35. This prompt has been tugging at me all week…through the holiday, the time off, the catching up on work once back in the office. I finally twirled around the opposite direction to see if I could stop time long enough to make the fleeting thoughts slow down…long enough to capture those words into verse. It’s a good thing I like the short forms, because I’ll be off and running again as soon as I click “post”. I did also read through many of the poems already posted…and for lack of time I’ll do a blanket “WOWZERS” to all. You (and your collective heart!) inspire me. XoX

    Foundation of My Heart

    Iowa ~
    where the tall corn grows.
    lightning bugs
    dance at night,
    and the work ethic is strong ~
    it’s where I’m from–home.

  37. Pingback: Foundation Of My Heart | echoes from the silence

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