Poetry Friday -- My Little Town

Home Town
by William Stafford

Peace on my little town, a speck in the safe,
     comforting, impersonal immensity of {12 miles from} Kansas.
Benevolence like a gentle haze on its courthouse
     (the model of Greek pillars to me)
     on its quiet little bombshell of a library,
     on its continuous, hidden, efficient sewer system.

Sharp, amazed, steadfast regard on its more upright citizenry,
     my nosy, incredible, delicious neighbors.

Haunting invasion of a train whistle to my friends,
     moon-gilding, regular breaths of the old memories to them—
     the old whispers, old attempts, old beauties, ever new.

Peace on my little town, haze-blessed, sun-friended,
     dreaming sleepy days under the world-champion sky.

I'll miss going home this summer...but first-home will just have to wait there in the midst of the wheat fields and under the blue, blue sky (my photo doesn't do the sky justice) while I fully settle back into now-home and give myself these weeks devoid of commitments so I can unravel and relax into ME.

**Edited to add, read this article: The Busy Trap. Wisdom: "...the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love." and "Life is too short to be busy."

Diane has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Random Noodling.

Poetry Friday: The Prairie Town

Main Street, Burlington, Colorado, Reflected in the Bank Window

The Prairie Town
by Helen Santmyer


Lovers of beauty laugh at this grey town,
Where dust lies thick on ragged curb-side trees,
And compass-needle streets lead up and down
And lose themselves in empty prairie seas.

Here is no winding scented lane, no hill
Crowned with a steepled church, no garden wall
Of old grey stone where lilacs bloom, and fill
The air with fragrance when the May rains fall.

But here is the unsoftened majesty
Of the wide earth where all the wide streets end,
And from the dusty corner one may see
The full moon rise, and flaming sun descend.

The long main street, whence farmers’ teams go forth,
Lies like an old sea road, star-pointed north.

Trade out the "teams" for pickup trucks, and this is my hometown. Where I'll be for a couple of weeks starting next week. Looking forward to some "Mom Time!"

 

This poem was a Poets.org poem-a-day recently.

Heidi has the Red, White and Blue edition of the Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog, My Juicy Little Universe.