WKMS and the Hoptown Chronicle, in support of The Big Read-Hopkinsville, will host poetry readings by area residents who take their inspiration from Kentucky author George Ella Lyon's classic, "Where I'm From."
Read Lyon's poem and write your own version about all the places and people who have shaped your life and identity.
Then come to The Corner Coffeehouse at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, to share you creation. Everyone is welcome. You don't have to write a poem to attend.
Where I'm From
by George Ella Lyon
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded --
leaf-fall from the family tree.
Submit your poem:
