Century House Poetry, Aug 21, 2011

Century House Poetry invited one and all to an open mic afternoon celebration of the poetry of ‘Coming Home’. Here is what coming home means to me.

COMING HOME: TO THE PLACE WHERE I BELONG

I’m coming home, to a place I’ve never been before

I’m called, to a land of my dreams and my destiny

I feel at peace, standing in the center of stone monuments erected centuries ago

With the shrubbery covered arch, a perfect frame to St. Declan’s Well

Peat bogs and mountains of Connemara, peeking thru the mists and gray-blue skies

The whitethorn and stone ruins littering the landscape

So many shades of green, there are no words to describe

A modern city, cut in half by the sluggish flowing River Liffey

Trinity College with the Book of Kells, the festive pubs, and forever the craic

I’ve come home to the place where I belong, to the fairy isle of Ireland

I’m coming home, to a place I’ve never been before

I’m called, to a land of my dreams and my destiny

I feel at peace, atop the fortress battlements, with the boom of the 1 o’clock gun

With panoramic views of Edinburgh Town, both old and new

Visiting the Crown Jewels and The Stone of Destiny

Bagpipers in full dress regalia play to the crowds along the Royal Mile

The lochs and glens rising north in the Highlands

Long ago battlefields and castle ruins lay under stormy rainbows

Stone dances, both known and obscure, used as burial sites and ancient calendars

I’ve come home to the place where I belong, to the magical place of Scotland

I’m coming home, to a place I’ve never been before

I’m called, to a land of my dreams and my destiny

I’ve come home to the place where I belong

Not to the land of my birth, but truly to the lands of my heart

D. Jordan Bernal         August 2011