NEPA Valley

 

Home, for me, is tucked

Deep inside a chain of soft rolling hills.

The people here call them mountains,

But these people know little else

And revel in the meagerness of these aged,

Worn,

And eroded landforms.

 

A homeland security that few could understand

Unless born and raised within the valley.

They protect us from tornados,

Hurricanes

And the harsh realities of life in other places.

 

A simple people

Generations behind their time,

Products of coal miners,

Quakers

And traditional family values.

 

They go to Church on Sundays,

And work hard for their beer money.

Growing up here,

Most of them complain about the weather

But very few ever leave.

 

Summers may be short and fickle,

But they pack every weekend with church picnics,

Clambakes,

And blues festivals.

They work long hours for laughable wages

And spend them on a good time

With best friends.

 

Driving through the countryside in fall

Can take anybody’s breath away

Thirty, forty autumns pass

But the magic never loses its momentum.

 

And when all the beauty falls from the trees,

Ice settles into cracked highways

And abandoned sidewalks,

These people cuddle up close to their neighbors

And wait out the bitter winter wind.

Children have the first day of Buck season off from school

And the sons get up at 4 a.m. with their fathers

Ignoring their frostbitten fingertips,

They wait for hours in perfect silence

Hoping to get their first 4-pointer.

Venison steaks for the entire family

Is nothing short of bliss.

 

Spring is just around the corner

And groundhog’s day is our most waited for holiday.

Will he see his shadow,

Or will we finally get a break in the weather?

Our people are extremely superstitious

And yes,

We do take it that seriously.

 

And somehow it still catches us by surprise,

One day,

When driving home from work we realize

The sun is still high over our heads

And we can see tiny green buds exploding from every direction.

Beauty is reborn

And all the robins are back from their vacation

 

Home, for me, is tucked

Deep inside a chain of soft rolling hills.

Where our neighbors love their neighbors

More than their cars and property

As simple as the seasons

Of the great valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

 

Author's Note

I really love where I live & the people in this area. I really wanted to capture how special this place is to me & emphasize the importance of the "mountains" the surround me.

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I am very impressed with your work, this is the second piece I've read, completely different from the first but every bit as good. You give a great feeling of place and people with this ( a writer's most essential tools) and you make the reader relate to the picture you paint ( a gift not all are blessed with) I'm going on to read more of your poetry...great stuff here!

[Desert Dreamer]

I feel as if I have visited this place of rolling hills and people that love their neighbors. The mountains not only protect the land but also the living things that live in the valleys including the people and their ways of life. You have created a vision.

[Adela Muresan]

Nice.
Even dough this is a great piece of writing I believe that you should have chosen prose instead of verse.

A.M.

[Sean Lawless]

man i almost cried.... ya dont realize how much you love home, until you are away. Christmas is about to approach, its hard to believe looking at all these palm trees. They have a stand next to my house with a sign saying: X-mas trees for sale. They are so pathetic they make charlie browns first christmas tree look like a full grown douglas fir. I honestly didnt realize how close christmas was until the other day as i was wiping the sweat from my brow i heard frosty the snow man being played in a passing car. I miss being tucked away inside a chain of soft rolling hills. I had almost decided to stay here for christmas. But i cant enjoy myself with out a white christmas. Thanks for helping me make up my mind. It truly is boring with the only season being hurricane season.

[Michael]

You tell a wonderful tale about your home. I really enjoyed how you travel us through the year and show a wonder with each season. No matter where one lives, there are wonders to behold. So often we only get to see the ugly and bad, your words a breath of fresh air.

A truly wonderful write!

[Una Xoto]

This is a wonderful piece. It brings to my a nice warm nostalgia for a land & it's people. By feeling your love an aesthetic appreciation for home it really makes the rest of us from small towns to close our eyes & recall our own little piece of familiar soil. Nicely done.