Member Poem

The feelings of Home

By Grant Leichty

Is home a peaceful forests of oak trees?

With a rustic log house?

Or busy streets of the New York City?

With a sleek apartment?

Is it where your family is?

Or where you are alone

In your room or in nature and quiet?

Is it where you have a certain smell that is just right?

Is it where you have everything exactly the way you want it?

This is what home is for me.

It’s how the dust explodes when a tractor

drives over the gravel roads.

That in the summer covers the grass like dew in the morning

It is where you don’t have to put on an “act” for people

It’s in the Shenandoah Valley with the wonderful smell

Of manure in the summer and woodsmoke in the winter.

It is surrounded by green fields of corn or beans

It’s the tv room where you have “your” chair

It is where you can flop into a cushioned couch and lay there forever

It is where there are the best home cooked meals

Like fresh warm fluffy pizza.

and the best breakfast of pancakes fried in bacon grease.

Most importantly it is where you are surrounded by family.