Is there really anyplace like home?

Question

Home

by C.S. Scotkin

Do you see the old house under the catalpa tree?

I grew up there when paint peeled; windows were looser

than my two front teeth. Floors slanted, ceilings low.

The outhouse, hidden behind the woodshed in back...

no indoor plumbing for five long winters

Electricity had three outlets to express itself.

Running water came six months after drawing from a mossy well,

I was frightened of the snake who made displeasure known when

galvanized buckets dropped.

.

Winter’s odors; kerosene, wood smoke permeated clothes,

dreams, upper floor bedrooms. Sister’s body heat more effective

insulation than decrepit corn cobs in cracked walls,

crumbling into dust our hope to wake up warm.

Spring and summer always came, eventually.

Forsythia gave way to lilacs giving way to old rose intoxication.

Meadows bloomed and berries ripened, creeks explored.

Crab apples, choke cherries, wild grapes and nut trees

vied for the attention of small girls seeking escape.

I have never hated or loved a place so much.

Answer 1

You must have been in the house on the hill overlooking ours.  I thought I recognized you.  We were in the house with the apricot tree, the mulberry tree and the pear tree.  Small world, and nice poem.

Answer 2

No y

Answer 3

Short answer,,, no, there is not.

Slightly longer answer,,, an excellent bit of verse.  The visualization nearly overpowered me and sent my brain into overdrive as I attempted to slow down the flood of memories,,, many of which were as you described.

No, we can never return except in our memory.  Though those very memories are what makes a house a home and us who we are.  Our memory also hones the sharp edges from the piercing bad experiences so that we wonder just how bad it really was,,, your final line sums it all up so nicely.

Answer 4

I once visited a home - where the facilities were much as you described.  Even though - it was much that I had never been exposed to - I soon got accustomed.  The warmth of the family within - made up for the lack of comforts without ♥

Answer 5

You are very descriptive and I can visualize your place.  I am very fortunate and have several places that I call home. Where I am right now is a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides and is a water and wooded wonderland. All types of marine and land animals, make it one of the best therapies Ive ever had. I also have a vast area of earth I call home. Others call it the "Gulf of Mexico" I can feel at home in any part of this water world, as long as the him and hurricanes are not visiting.  So I leave you with this phrase," Home is where the heart is or anyplace you feel really content"  I bid you good fortune.

Answer 6

Your words are right on the spot.

Is there really any place like home ?

No, there is not; no matter what !

Answer 7

A richly descriptive tapestry.  I can identify with your outhouse, and some of the winter odors, though we burned coal (we started the coal fire with kindling, kerosene, and old newspapers though).  I felt myself smiling a bit with "Electricity had three outlets to express itself."  I remember that in winter it seemed that the walls of home closed in on me, both comforting and suffocating me. Spring was a relief. "Small girls seeking escape" evokes feelings of frustration that perhaps are healed by your poetry.  I know what you mean when you speak of both loving and hating a place... Keep writing, we all need our therapy, we need a place to call home.  Be well.

Answer 8

I loved your last line.

Being raised in the military, then married into it for 25 years, any home I had was held no longer that 18 months to 2 years.  I always envied people who had "roots" and a home to go home to. Good or bad, at least it was yours!

ma

Answer 9

If your home is New York.......then, NO---------there really isn't any place like it.  

Answer 10

That age old Love Hate Relationship..

I live it

I recall it more clearly and nostalgically than it ever really was.

Very well put.. I enjoyed the visit especially the smell of the lilacs in full bloom.

Answer 11

nope. : ]

Answer 12

A descriptive and sensual poem. The last line shows your ambivalent feelings toward "home." I would not like to return to my childhood home.