Poetry

My sweet friend Annie (aka Wexford Girl) sent me a poem a few months ago that made her think of me and Pierre.  The poem by Gerald Locklin hit home for both us and soothed our aches for our home away from home. 

i envy those
who live in two places:
new york, say, and london;
wales and spain;
l.a. and paris;
hawaii and switzerland.

there is always the anticipation
of the change, the chance that what is wrong
is the result of where you are. i have
always loved both the freshness of
arriving and the relief of leaving. with
two homes every move would be a homecoming.
i am not even considering the weather, hot
or cold, dry or wet: i am talking about hope.

With or without knowing it, Annie perfectly captured a very real aspect of our lives together and helped us both get over that wanting for the other place that creeps up on us after a few months away.  Pierre was a little blue at the time when we received the poem, wondering if we had left France too soon for him.  For me and Pierre, one of us is always away from home, and together we are always in our home away from home.

I remember so distinctly the point at which I decided to try love where I am in the present and not to long to be somewhere else.  Pierre and I had been living in Lyon for about 9 months and I was continuing to travel back to San Francsico every 3 months or so.  Work gave me the perfect excuse to come back frequently, but secretly I was thankful for the chance to stay connected with my personal life back home too.  On one trip in particular, I started to miss Lyon and France almost immediately after arriving back in San Francisco, and just days before I had been so eager to be there.  It dawned on me that it was getting exhausting to be psychologically mixed up like that all the time and I've been trying to be present ever since. 

Thank you for sharing the poem Annie.  It captures the delicate balance of living a life in two places.  We never overlook how lucky we are, even if we moan about it a bit.   

Comments

[Annie]

You're welcome Shannon. Home is such a state of mind, and such a comforting idea. It is different, and a little heartbreaking, when you have two. Not to be too morbid, but I told Eric this morning that I want half my ashes scattered on the San Francisco Bay, and half on the river Slaney in Wexford. That will be several long decades from now I hope!