On The Same Page Group Poem: My Home

We had an amazing On the Same Page session last week with the Georgetown University First-Year Orientation to Community Involvement (FOCI) program, which introduces incoming Georgetown students to social justice issues and opportunities for service and social change in Washington, DC. To close the session, the FOCIans (as they like to be called) and our Poet Ambassadors and staff co-wrote a group poem to the prompt “My Home.” We were inspired by the FOCIans’ commitment to social justice, and it was a great reminder for all of us: we may be coming from different backgrounds and different homes, but we all share the same need for love, support, comfort, safety, and family. And we all share the responsibility for making every community a safe, welcoming, and supportive home.

My Home

My home is where I have struggled, prospered, experienced pain, and rejoiced
Through it all
I have grown into the person I am today

My home is a place of comfort – a place of serenity + safety
No fear, no struggle
Surely, my home is not all homes

My home… 4 people
Sometimes in sync
Sometimes not
All doing their things
But bound by some things in common:
Caring, understanding, love

My home is governed by God
So joy + peace is not a façade

My home is bowls of warm tortellini
Late night Mets games
And hugs with my sister

My home is a place of support, humor, and hope
Grounded in the faith of my family
Committed to making ourselves live for others
By letting our hearts soak in the salience of unrecognized societal signs

My home is in the trees
Bark under my feet
Thoughts bouncing and breaking
Finding the places I keep hidden
I listen for the night to tell me
What’s inside myself

My home is what shaped me
My home is why I’m here
My home is what defines me
I did not choose my home

My home is a place of comfort – a place of serenity + safety
No fear, no struggle
Surely, my home is not all homes

Home is nowhere near
But is everywhere dear to my heart
Home… is my sanctuary
My place of hiding
Where my soul finds solace in me
Unconditional love from my mother
Weary and tired, I walk
Into my mother’s arms and cry
Until I have let it all out
Home will always be

I find my home in the love of my family and friends
It is where I feel comfortable yet challenged
Sharing life with others while being wholly myself

Three daughters with blue eyes
Two hard working parents
A fireplace on a cold autumn night
An Irish blessing on the wall
& Georgetown blankets on the couch

I look out the window and watch as the waves hit the beach
Unending patterns surround me
Do I notice the monotony anymore?
Sometimes I need to step away from it all
Exploring the unknown like the heron soaring overhead

Fresh, home-cooked food
Is a pleasure I have come to know
All too well
I have a bed to sleep on
Clothes to wear
And a family to love
But sometimes I wonder
What would I be like if those were gone?
Would I be different? Or would I be the same?
Would I frolic in the warmth? Or writhe in the cold?
I know what I have, and I am grateful for that
I praise God every day for what he has blessed me with
But sometimes I can’t help but wonder
What it would be like
If all that I had come to know
Were to change
A change that would challenge me
Alter the world as I know it
Force me to probe the inner depths of my soul
To find what I really feel
About the world in which I have come
To love
But then I realize that my home is my solitude
A place where I can go to drop
What the world has forced upon me
I can go home for a bed to sleep on
And a nice piece of blueberry pie
And then I realize, whenever this change comes,
My home is what will keep my life together
My home lets me go on

I am lucky to have a home
I am even luckier to call it mine
My home isn’t just a place where I live,
But more importantly it is a place where I love, laugh, smile
Not everyone has a house,  but I have been given a home
How did I get so lucky

2 Comments

  1. Magali on September 12, 2013 at 1:06 PM

    How lovely! It’s terrific that you carry those good experiences within you.

    My favorite lines are: “Sometimes I need to step away from it all/Exploring the unknown like the heron soaring overhead.” I hear in those lines that, even if we have a strong base of love from other people, we need to reach out on our own and discover something new.

    Your well-spoken gratitude to your family is a gift to them, and to other people who will understand how helpful it is to provide a loving environment at home. It would be wonderful if everyone had that supportive foundation to draw from.

  2. Sarah S. on December 28, 2013 at 12:20 PM

    This is such a beautiful, universal poem that anyone can relate to, yet it is specific to the authors’ own lives, which makes it wonderfully personal. My favorite lines are the simplest ones: “Home will always be,” “My home lets me go on,” “How did I get so lucky.” It’s filled with gratitude and love, and as a Georgetown alum, I’m proud that my fellow Hoyas played a part in this.

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