Home for the Holidays

I took these photos of my mother’s backyard just now. I’m sure I’ve posted similar images over the last year:  these same 6 acres in different seasons. I’m spending the last few days of 2013 with my family in Vermont, and I have been overwhelmed with a longing for this home. Since 2011, my poetry has been consumed by images of this land, yet I never questioned leaving to be with my partner when the time came. I knew that, for once in my life, growing a romantic relationship had become the priority. Now the thought of home is like a drumbeat in the back of my brain, growing louder with each day I spend here.

 

 

As an avid traveler, it was a personal revolution to return to Vermont. As a staunchly independent woman, it was also a revolution to move away for the sake of love. These personal triumphs are becoming more and more important to me, and I am trying to give each equal weight. My hope for the new year is that I will find a connection with the Georgian peaks that brings a similar comfort as the Green Mountains. What would this take? I am signed on as a volunteer with Sawnee Mountain Preserve and will soon host the Earth Speaks Poetry Series with the Dunwoody Nature Center. These small acts of stewardship call to me; a sense of calm washes over my body when I imagine spending such meaningful time outdoors and in community. Perhaps with such serenity, I can rest in the knowledge that Vermont will always be home, even when I am engaging in love elsewhere. 

 

Interested in my youth writing classes for 2014? Check out “Poetry in Performance” at Atlanta’s Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. Only one week left to register!