I've been to Thailand's beaches
and to Alborz' upper reaches,
to Paris, London, Helsinki and Rome,
looked down on Turkey's mountains,
was sprayed by Versailles' fountains,
and nothing can decrease my love of home.
I've lived in many places,
but no capital replaces
the lakes and hills I knew in younger days.
The rocky spaces beckon,
convincing me, I reckon,
my path will lead me back to sparkling bays.
The longer that I travel
from the pink Ontario gravel,
the more I wish to see the roads I drove.
I've been gone a score of seasons,
foreign lands give many reasons
why I can't forget the country that I love.
MargaretG, January 2009
Author notes
14. Most of us dream of traveling, Tell me your dreams, where do you want to go, what is it like, whatever strikes your fancy.
Photo: West Nipissing Resort, Lake Nipissing
A contest entry
- Huguenauties Contest No.#40 for MEMBERS OF HUGH WYLES FAVOURITES GROUP ONLY by huguenauties.
750 points, ended January 23, 2009, 11 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Thank you for reading!
Comments
1 - 37 of 37
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Ah, I know the feeling. Very nice poem and sentiments.
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Thank you Mari - good luck to you.
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I like it a lot. I haven’t been a lot of places, but I am always really happy to get back to Texas. You used an interesting but unusual rhyme scheme. Favorite lines:
nothing can decrease my love of home
lead me back to sparkling bays
I can't forget the country that I love
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Thank you Linda. I admire Robert Service's excellent rhyming.
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Dear Margaret,
I'd love to travel to different places, and though I love New Zealand, Sydney will always be my home, it's where my children are.Good luck Margaret.
Hine
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Dear Margaret,
I’m sorry that I’ve stayed away.
My brain has been unsound.
I think my Muse has gone to ground
and left me nought to say.
But Edna’s slightly better now
and so my mind and brain
are starting to come right again
and I can think somehow.
I too have been to far off places
but, wherever I'd rest,
my NZ country was the best
with its clean, green, open spaces.
The temple bells of Thailand call to me
but its beaches I again will never see.
Applause, and best of luck in the voting.
Love and hugs, XXX Hugh (R.)
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Oh let me roam, far far away
Dear Margaret, A lot of countries you have lived in.
I think it's wonderful to be able to travel to far away places.
It would be hard to forget the country you were born in as I know I would feel the same way.
I love your poem very much Margaret.
Good luck in the voting.
Jenny
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Thank you so much Jenny! My experience gives me more respect for my grandparents who left their homelands to settle in Canada. This wistfulness is just a mood; generally I am happy to be where I am.
Best of luck to you in the contest.
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The love you have for your homeland comes through so strongly. You must really miss it.
A lovely stirring poem.
best of luck
Mia
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Thank you Mia. I get homesick sometimes, and think about the things and places I miss. I hope to get back for a visit this year, but we will be living away for another few years.
Thank you for dropping by, I hope things are well with you.
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Wonderful poem
Dear Sweetpea, you certainly have been to a lot of countries over the years.What wonderful sights you must have seen though. If I went overseas for too long I'd become homesick. Loved your poem my dear friend, good luck in the voting.
Love Joan
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Thank you Joan - it is a lot of countries, but then it has been more than 17 years, so really, most of my time is spent at home, wherever that may be. Thanks for your comment and applause, and also good luck to you!
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It's always nice to meet someone else from Ontario; I, too, have been to many places, and I agree that there's no place like home
I'm from Mississauga, but I'm living in Ottawa at the moment, and I hate it
Good luck in the contest!
Laura
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Thanks for reading and applause, Laura! It is nice to meet another Ontarian, we are a tiny minority here in Ukraine. I have to tell you that Ottawa looks just as good to me as Mississauga from here! Thanks for your kind words.
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A beautiful sharing ...
Your poem reads like a auto-bio and has a sentiment built in that I can sure ID with. The form and style are in keeping with the greats as well! I do lots of traveling and that's probably why I missed this gem ... for I don't stay in one place as long as you and I get back to my homefront more frequently as well. I know the feeling of missing it too! Nice work with this one and I hope to hear of your arrival back at home and your feelings about it all one day in the future! I hope to be here!
May you keep your heart open to that day! j
y
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Thank you so much for your insight, Joy. This is somewhat autobiographical, I have been to these places; the sentiment is pumped up a bit, as it becomes when one dwells on it. I'm happy you enjoyed reading, thanks for appreciation and applause.
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A diplomat's travelogue
to satisfy vicarious wishes
of the reader. Ah, then
on to your dream of home
deemed as the best!
A vision-filled gem, Margaret!
But are you feeling the freeze
in the Ukraine? Been thinking
of you as the stories continue
about the pipeline shutdowns!
Bad enough to be far from home,
but so chilled, too! Hope not.
M-C
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Thanks M-C; be it wild and unruly, there's no place like home.
Thanks for asking about my conditions here. We notice the windows are cold and the rooms are not quite warm enough, but there is no hardship as long as we have electricity. Hope you are well, happy new year!
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We always want to go back to the womb, because that was where we had been most blissful. This desire is a deep-down thing from before birth and going beyond death. That is why we like mother's cooking the best of all, whatever great cooking we have come across in our life away from her...This is a very beautiful poem.
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Thank you Venu. You could be right, the place where we form our identity becomes part of what we think we are.
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Margeret, this piece is universal(other than the ontario reference) and as I read it I thought of my native Newfoundland(for all you foreigners and western Canadians it is pronounced newf'nland)
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the reference to sparkling bays and rocky spaces conjure up memories of playing on a beach while the north atlantic ocean played its rhytmic tune...thanks for this piece and good luck in the contest...peace Terry
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Thank you Terry! My family lived in "Newfnland" when I was very small, and that pronunciation stuck with us. We have a peculiar connection to the terrain we grew up with - other places are grand, beautiful, - fine - but they do not touch our hearts like the hills or plains of home. Thank you for your sympathetic comment and insight to your experience. Happy 2009!
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Margaret, where in Newfoundland did your family live?
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A very readable poem.
I note that you have not been to a complete Hemisphere (that I know of) but you are forgiven.
The nostalgia is not mawkish but genuine. And, the theme of restlessness for one's comfort zone of earlier years on the globe is so true for most although many Europeans on our Range would not go back 'home' for quids (some, not even for a visit).
Best wishes with this poem and thank you for the joy of reading it a few times, in fact.
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Thanks Ron!
I'm rather sad now that we have not yet crossed the equator (nor the date line), and double my hope that this will happen. Thank you for your sensitive reading and kind comment. I would love to see your Range, though it would have been better sooner.
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I know I missed home when I lived in Cal for a couple years, it shapes who we are I guess and what's the old saying about taking the boy out of the country? You know the one. Thanks for entering.
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Thanks Mayne, I see you understand. Decisions like where to live invariably involve the needs of other people, and we yearn for what we cannot have.
Thanks for your comment.
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Fortunate are the people who travel during their lives. I'm not nearly as traveled as you are, Margaret, but I know of which you speak. Each place on earth has its own beauty and richness but it's always a great feeling to get home again.
Your poem speaks eloquently of this beauty and of the beauty of home and also shows us your appreciation of the world in general. A truely wonderful poem
I wish you best of luck in the contest
Dee
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Dear Dee, thank you for your appreciation, your comment is lovely.
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Convincing!
Basic to this poem is a strange phenomenon: familiarity makes us blind.
People who have never travelled take beauty for granted. Some of the most breathtakingly beautiful ocean-front scenery is in Canada's Newfoundland, yet when we visited there, gaping at the glory, we saw local folks walk right by without a glance. Travel opens eyes.
I really enjoyed your view that extends that truth, extending even more with widely different places visited!
Terry
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Thank you Terry, your experience gives you insight. The cities of Europe are great, with wonderful architecture and fantastic museums and food; and perhaps "distance makes the heart grow fonder". I am not missing the mosquitoes! Appreciating what we have here and now is a key to happiness.
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This poem conjurs up a wonderful feeling of where we all want to be...no matter where we roam there truely is no place like home..just ask Dorothy Good luck in the contest..it is a very lovely piece.
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Thank you for your kind comment, that feeling is the key to the poem, and one which I hope most readers will recognize. Best of luck to you as well!
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Home is truly where the heart is. All roads lead you back eventually. May your dreams come true.
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Thank you for your thoughts Keith. I expect I will be back many times, at least to visit.
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MArgaret, I was born in Burgeo(former home of Farley Mowat and setting for his book "a whale for the killing" lived on the south coast in Hermitage and Gaultois, spent 2 years in the capital of St johns and lived four years in Grandfalls-windsor before moving across the continent to BC in 81.
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Terry, yours is the kind of knowledge that cannot be learned by any tourist.
Best wishes always.
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