"Roots" by John Piller

I’m liking this game. Okay. The line “Our ropes are our roots” from the last post leads us to today’s poem, "Roots". But notice how these poems have much more in common than a word. They are both poems about place and belonging. The John Pillar poem also feels timely because it’s that time of year when many students are packing up their dorm rooms and going home for the summer. Many people are leaving home for trips and adventures to other places they wish were their home instead. It’s also the first time in four year that spring has rolled around, the school year has ended, and I’m not going “home.” I won’t bore you with my musing on place today. It is Monday after all so I’ll be kind. However, I will say that if you haven’t already (and don’t think this is so cliché you would rather die), after reading this poem, sit down either in the morning or the evening in with a cup of tea and take a minute to think about what the words “roots” and “home” mean to you. As a person? As a reader? As a writer? …

Roots
By John Piller

Mendota, Illinois

It's easy to believe you can go back
Whenever you desire, jump in the car
And drive, arrive at dusk—the hour

You recall most vividly—and walk
Among the buildings spread across the farm,
Out toward the pastures, woods, and fields.

There is music in the leaves, in the dense
Columns of green corn. The wind lays down
The tune. You can play it, too, simply

By walking with eyes closed, arms
Stretched out, lightly striking the stalks.
Who wouldn't desire, like the children

Lost in so many similar fields,
To sit down on the turned earth and drift
Away on the rhythms of his own

First possible death? Rescuing
Voices come closer, veer off. Flashlight beams
Strobe over your head. You do not care.

Each building you remember—hen house,
Sheep shed, corn crib, barn—caved in upon itself,
The walls and roofs collapsing with a final

Percussive clap, since you last walked those fields.
No one you will ever know works that land now.
It is as green as Eden. Life rises in the roots, in the leaves.

Found at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/29524