Coming Home

This poem was inspired by a tweet from a Cleveland Heights neighbor about her experience driving home after a vacation.  Here's her tweet:

Vacation to MI where I was born & raised. My comfort is road signs driving home "East Cleveland" to home, home is Cleveland!!#htspoetweet

and here's my poem:

The Sign Says, “EAST to CLEVELAND:” I Read “HOME” 

You flee the routine; seeking

change, adventure.  Finding these

you wish, perhaps, for some magic

that will let you stay – release you

permanently from the  drudgery

of every day events – give you leave

to abdicate the dull predictability of home. 

But you know well that moment

when the glow tips over into longing.

No matter what awaits; piles of laundry,

stuffy house, sorting through the mountain

of unwanted mail - your eyes blink past

each green emblazoned sign, watching

only for the one announcing “home.”

There's still time to tweet me thoughts on vacation or stay-cation - the topics for August.  #htspoetweet
Or if you don't tweet, leave a comment below and I can work from that.

Check out my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/poetartistKathleenCerveny

Bluestone (Cleveland) Heights

At the Cedar Fairmount Street Fair this weekend, there was a terrific and exclusive tour of Bluestone Heights - the name that the Heights is known by, by geologists.  We had the chance to step into the gulch behind the lovely Tudor Deming House and learn about the geologic history of this area, built on Berea Sandstone, Euclid Bluestone and Cleveland Shale.   Here's a poem that was inspired by (some of) what I learned.

Bluestone Heights 

In the Late Devonian

this place that I call home

lay at zero latitude; Equator.

Before the vast tectonic plates

settled in their current place,

my city’s global longitude

was at the locus of Peru.   

Our Heights were once submerged below

an intercoastal sea. Its depths,

a muck and silted dead zone, left

no ancient fossil trace.  Instead,

it formed the hard-pressed, layered bed

of Euclid Bluestone, Cleveland shale

that sandwiches our neighborhood.  

This rock and shale beneath our feet,

was mined for sidewalks; and above,

capped the crenelated parapets  

of all the old apartment houses

up Cedar Hill and down my street.

 

Tweet me your thoughts about our local geology, what you are doing on vacation or anything about life in Cleveland Heights #htspoetweet - or leave a comment after this poem.

What's NOT Cool About Habitat Loss

I've been away on vacation most of July, hence the paucity of posts.  But this one was inspired by a photo and story that HeightsArts' new Executive Director Rachel Bernstein shared when I returned.  And with the topic for July being 'stayin' cool', her experience prompted this negative take on that theme.  It's an experience we have all had here in the Heights - all too frequently in the recent past - but seen through the eyes of our 'best friend.'

Encounter 

For thirty seconds, he just stared;

confusion overpowering instinct. 

“WHAT!”       “WHAT!?” 

raced through his brain.

And then the barking started. 

Even from the upstairs window

he knew the backyard enemy was big. 

“BIG!”            “WHAT!? 

Bigger than the one who lives

next door and smells like meows.

Bigger than the one across the way

who’s always chasing lawn rats. 

“I would catch them if I could get

out alone. But …WHAT!?” 

From the square of green behind

the white frame house, the deer

looks up, at the familiar sound.

 

 

Send me your tweets to #htspoetweet or leave a comment below.  Comments/tweets on the July theme, stayin' cool or the August theme vacation or stay-cation, are welcome.  I'll keep making poems as long as you keep inspiring  me.