The Midwest

Life in the Midwest reminds me of Johnny Cash and "Sunday Morning Coming Down"

I was born of the ceaseless plains

with the endless sky above

It was there I learned to wander

it was there I learned to love

 

Despite where life had taken me

from green grass to black sea foam

I’d cried to each wind filled valley

"will I ever find a home"

 

Days of life would pass on to years

distant plains rang out a plea

Over the rivers and valleys

where my home had drank of me

 

The Midwest had been calling me

as it echoed out in song

"I am the land of your fathers

and here is where you belong"

 

 

Author's Note

For many of the years of my life I wondered why I never felt at home when I traveled far and wide? Then as I aged it came to me. There is a reason birds fly back to where they were born and fish swim thousands of miles to spawn in the rivers they were born from. Who we are is as simple as where we came from. So I came home to start a family and pass that to my own children.

Reviews

[Deborah Brooks-Langford]

I got your book today.. Life's Tree.. I am so excited.. I will be taking it to my speech in a few weeks... your poetry is outstanding.. my friend

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you Deb i am so happy you like ti thank you

[TheLostMind]

A really good write. We can never be at peace knowing that we belong somewhere else. Our souls will be restless and our hearts will be filled with memories of those good old days. This poem made me remember my childhood. Thanks for sharing :)

[Tate Morgan]

You are welcome I often look back on my own childhood to those memories that carved the man I became thank you

[MomzillaNC]

Finding home is everyone's goal. Some find it in a place, other's find home in someone. My husband, an immigrant, makes his home with us, but always yearns for the home of his birth; he wants us with him, but he wants that place, even though he knows he cannot live there again. For me, my home is where he and my son are. Place never meant that much to me. But, I understand the sentiments. You penned them well.

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you cont we all look back at times with candor and joy to the times and places that we once called home?

[MomzillaNC]

I know that some do. You're lucky to have that happy experience of your childhood home.

[Tate Morgan]

Oh i had a few and it was the friends i remember most not so much the blood

[MomzillaNC]

In a home where so much was wrong, the deliberate isolation was part of the problem and the reason help never came.

[Tate Morgan]

oh we all have disfunctional families dont we lol Oh well we do what we can with them maybe they will learn

[MomzillaNC]

I think much of the disfunction comes from the isolation of the "nuclear family." There are things that just could not continue to occur if we were more in fellowship and communion with our neighbors.

[Parimal Pratyush]

It is such an original thought, sir. We should know where we belong. Somehow someway it fills me with pride to remember where I belong. One who doesn't know where he belongs has a nomad soul. It will never be at peace.

[Tate Morgan]

I agree it is our duty to our kin to honor the memories and accomplishments of our ancestors Bringing dignity to our lives and those who share the ideals and heritage of our past.Thank you

[B.J]

That poem is how I feel about the land Australia and the times spent in the Flinders ranges South Australia where my Dad grew up. Beautiful words.

[Tate Morgan]

thank you barb it is a truism for us all that we long for where we grew up

[B.J]

you're welcome. your work as I read it is so honest and down to earth

[Tate Morgan]

thank you barb I am a simple man I use simple language in unusual ways to tell the tales of the life i have led

[B.J]

Brilliant:)........

[Tate Morgan]

thank you very much

[B.J]

:)............................

[jackie]

great song again,You bare such a great poem writer.

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you Jackie that was sweet if you

[Jerry Ables]

Touching sentiments expressed so eloquently, Tate:) The read is appreciated very much:) Richest blessings to you and yours:)

[Tate Morgan]

thank you very much

[TL Boehm]

this is a beautiful poem. So many of us wandering yankees - we've given this up and even with roofs over our heads, we are homeless.

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you You always make me smile

[Danomaly1983]

Very good. Home is both where your heart is, and where you came from. I liked the paragraph "where my home had drank of me". Good metaphor.

[Tate Morgan]

Home is always the call of the hearth. I went to Troy Ohio yesterday the home from where i came to reconnect with family and friends

[Amy]

In simple words, there is no place like home, Tate. Great write up... :)

[Tate Morgan]

thank you so much amy Much appreciated