Poetry Day #28

There was a lot of information to digest today about Emily Dickinson, and the hundreds of poems she left behind on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes – I will delve into this when I have more time, and am not technically “at work”. The prompt really boiled down to writing about a significant room or space from our lifetime that we still warmly recall in full detail.

Haiku

Memories abound

Through sight, smell and emotion

Not all are happy

Finally Home

By the time I was ten years old

I had lived at as many addresses

No place felt like home to me

I never really fit in

Packing was always hard

But I grew to find joy in unpacking

And rediscovering my treasures

As I found new places for each

None of my tears lasted too long

At least in my recollection

Every tiny piece of my life

Unknowingly turning me into who I am now

I have great memories of places

And of smells and of sights I took in

Not realizing at the time

How much each experience was shaping me

I started to find my footing in high school

A rotten, defiant and belligerent teen

The conundrum of wanting to belong

Yet needing to chart my own course

It continued through college

Where I would try to conform

To things like sorority life 

Then abruptly turn and run

I found my niche

The lone female running with

A wild pack of men

Throwing darts, bowling and drinking

And getting one step closer

To being the woman that

Is at home in a dive bar

Or a five star resort

Searching and searching for a place

To call home

All the while knowing the edifice did not matter

It is what I put in the shell that makes the difference

It is my art that matters

And my pets that matter

And one very special person that now

Makes me feel at home