Where I'm From

George Ella Lyons created quite a following where she first published the poem "Where I'm From" in a poetry collection called Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet.  If you click here you can read the poem and also more about what writers have done with this poem. Here is a version done in the NIWP  Summer Institute:

I Am From

 I am from a sunbeam mixer

From Nalley Potato Chips, Shasta Creme Soda, and Canada Dry

I am from the old metal clothesline

And coffee perking in a Pyrex pot

I am from the lilacs in spring

The sweet smell of syringa

Whose long gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.

I’m from Sunnyside Chili Feed and Father/Daughter banquets

From Beautiful Bill and Little Poo

I’m from Sunday dinner and Christmas Eve candlelight service

And from trick or treating every Halloween.

I’m from the roads are slick and your eyes will stay that way

And meet me under the clock at The Crescent.

I’m from E. Portland and Cameron Avenue

Beans and bread and Missouri pudding.

From the day Bill cut his foot on the pop bottle to

Mom cutting his toenails before he went to the clinic.

The dusty Monopoly and Sorry games

In the storage closet upstairs

And moments sharpened by black and white photos

In a heavy, warm, box

Stuck way in the back. 

by Christy Woolum