Apr 07 2009
Where I’m From
April is National Poetry Month! Poetry is one of my passions in life, so I love having a whole month to celebrate it.
A few years ago, I went to a week-long workshop for English teachers where we learned about teaching writing by actually writing. One activity we did was based on a poem by George Ella Lyon titled “Where I’m From.” Our task was to write a similar poem telling where we each came from. Here is mine:
Where I’m From
I am from the house built between hickories– where the pig lot used to be, with the pet cemetery in the front yard and what used to be a garden of mums long overgrown with Queen Anne’s lace. I am from family picnics on summer holidays, potato salad, charcoal-grilled hamburgers, and Grandma’s Nameless Cake, rides on Dad’s Harley to the Tastee-Freeze, 4-H projects and ten straight days at the county fair. I am from Barbies and Cabbage Patch dolls, the Wizard of Oz on TV once a year (always in March for my birthday), hair French-braided so tightly that it hurt to be beautiful. The hand-painted wooden signs nailed up at the end of the driveway– Martin Houses For Sale Fresh Eggs For Sale –now replaced by a vinyl sign reading simply For Sale.