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

[jacob erin-cilberto]

funny for me...i never flew back to where i am from... i left the Bronx at nine years old...and have lived in the midwest ever since...
near chicago for ten years...but ever since then, southern illinois...and even though i have roots in the city...this has always felt like home...i imagine that is because even from my days in Bronx, i spent all my summers up in Vermont...and that was always home for me...
it still is in a way...but the winters will keep me from moving back there, so i take the closest thing to that...right here where i am.

your poem makes us think about and appreciate our roots. and what they mean.

[Tate Morgan]

I thank you. I often wonder if our cities are just too impersonal a million people walking round amidst the loneliness. I have always loved knowing my neighbors and maybe you are more like that

[Patricia]

This is so very beautiful and nothing is as beautiful as the mid-west scenic rich green landscapes and its living nature. As much as I love traveling out west I am so happy to come back home to live. The weather is always a challenge all year around but it is home. Great piece of poetry. :)

[Tate Morgan]

I agree the Midwest and its equally challenging 4 seasons are a joy like no other from the falling leaves to its wheat blown fields thank you

[Patricia]

I love writing of it, I have so many of nature and season poems because here it is so inviting. I don't share much of them here yet but I will. :)

[Tate Morgan]

I think the rhyme and meter seem to tell it best for me anyway. I see life as a melody thank you

[Patricia]

That is so beautifully said, yes, exactly.

[Tate Morgan]

thank you pat

[Leslie Philibert]

Tate writes well, popular poetry indeed, but you need skill to do it well, and he does..

[Tate Morgan]

Leslie Thank you as always a gentleman and scholar I tip my hat to you .

[nana]

Oh Tate as always you make me long to go home. I should visit you more often .

Cheers
Nannette

[Tate Morgan]

Thanks Nannette You know you are always welcome and often searched for in my thoughts

[Frieda P]

My gypsy soul brought me back here this Sunday morning....

[Tate Morgan]

you are the sweetest of the fairer sex here thank you

[Dayran]

A weary traveler comes back home ... a life comes full circle. Nice one Huck ...

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you Sri ou are one like my sons friend Jeffery Who if you lived by me would not be required to knock when you visited. the door would just be open.

[Einstein Noodle]

i can't tell you how many people i have met that moved to the coasts or some other "better weather place" only to return .. even after many years away .. there is a solid goodness in the midwest (i think) ..
i was born in SD and grew up in NY but found my own way back here in the 70's .. had intended to work the summer then return to NY .. never happened ... but life happens here on the plains and prairies just like you say .. your poetry always makes me remember good things Tate .. God bless :)
E.

[Tate Morgan]

You and i are old enough to recognize the call of the wild and the smell of grandmas cooking cheers onward to the end.

[Tate Morgan]

You and i are old enough to recognize the call of the wild and the smell of grandmas cooking cheers onward to the end.