Heart’s Compass

I spent years in different places,
painting walls and hanging blinds.
I got to know many faces,
landscapes, tastes and sounds,
lacing fragile ties
and pulling them apart again
before I could acclimatise
to nuances of sun and rain.

I longed for a little place
where I could set down roots,
pulling it on each day
like a comfy pair of boots.
I hoped for a garden full of trees,
pigeons on the telephone wire,
somewhere not far from the sea,
near a city with a cathedral spire.

Seventeen years I’ve lived here
in the compass of my heart,
where leafy lanes greet me
when we’ve been apart.
There’s a cosy pub, a village hall
and fields in easy reach
and, only a short drive away,
a windswept beach.

Kim M. Russell, 2017

Compass of my Heart

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Weekend Mini-Challenge: Home

This weekend, Brendan has been discussing home, homesickness and homelessness. He would like us to write about the compass whose pole star ever points us toward home in a new poem.

29 thoughts on “Heart’s Compass”

  3. “… I longed for a little place / where I could set down roots, / pulling it on each day / like a comfy pair of boots … ” — how we name, find, calibrate and use this “compass of the heart,” this sense of home-warding and ”finding,” is the difference, IMO, between falling and flying. Nicely done.

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  4. I also had the experience of frequent moves in my youth, and having settled for the last 30 years, I am feeling the old need for a change of scenery.. but laziness keeps me in one place.

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  5. It is nearly impossible not to close one’s eyes and sigh deeply, smelling that beach, when one gets to the end of the poem… This reads like a perfect shower, after a long day that is a lifetime. Love the mood and the ending.

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  13. Sounds idyllic – I would like to live there.
    ‘…comfy pair of boots’ – just lovely!
    Kind regards
    Anna :o]

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    1. It’s a sunny morning here, Susie, the willows and daffodils are dancing in the breeze and yes, it is wonderful! I just need the deer to play tag around the shrubs and it’s perfect!

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