"Where I Am From" Poem

Having seen this writing exercise on several blogs lately, my latest sighting reminded me that I wanted to try it. You can get the template here to try it, too.

Here is my Poem:


"Where I Am From"


I am from books, from Pledge and dust-bunnies.

I am from a high-ceilinged southern home, with doors that slid into walls, a high curving staircase, many rooms, shoes clicking against hardwood floors.

I am from the Camellia and the Azalea bush, the pink and rose colors of its blooms.

I am from family Christmas gatherings and waiting as each person opens their presents, taking turns, appreciating each gift. I am from Karl and Janis and God.

I am from the impatient and lonely.

From "children are to be seen and not heard" and "don't touch" with a slap on the hand.

I am from haphazard religious instruction, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, struggling to swim, to stay afloat, until I feel myself getting closer to the Truth and to True Peace, knowing there is Peace in the midst of all this chaos.

I'm from Georgia, Germany, and Ireland, potatoes and beef.

From the German immigrants with a loving and good name, the grandfather who changed his last name, and the father who changed his first.

I am from an old 19th century trunk full of pictures, letters and mementos of ancestors never known, letters and newspaper clippings and pictures that have made their way into a new trunk, a cedar trunk, awaiting the next descendant whose hands open to find a treasure within its cedar walls.