close to home
poems & meditations
Bart White
(With 20 Color Photos)
The “give a poem” project was launched in 2015 with card stock and a stamp. This collection is the second gathering of “gaps” in book form. Originally, the poems were handwritten in sets of 24 and given away to friends and strangers. Each is paired with a photo and belongs to a series. Meditations, Sky and Home are series continuing from volume one, in the next hour, FootHills 2018. New series are Mendon Ponds Park and Village Poems. Some were born from simply looking out the window of our house or on walks around the block, hence the title, close to home. Weather and light are naturally present in the poems and the feel of the seasons—winter’s ice, a yearning for spring, summer’s abundance and freedom. The poems wonder about street names, gravestones, bridges and birds; there’s a girl picking blackberries, a boy chasing his shadow, a late rose, the coming of darkness. The first poem asks, How did the day begin? Readers reflecting on this question may discover some meaning that lands close to home.
How did the day begin?
Under the green pine,
quiet & still,
a deer was kneeling
on a cushion of brown needles
fallen in a circle.
The Lord will provide, the faithful say.
And if I, wandering in the dark night,
stumble into such a bed,
I too will kneel & sleep
under vast & empty space
with boughs to cover me
until first light.
November 2018
close to home
is a 44 page hand-stitched chapbook with 20 color photos - $14.00
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