Poems about homes: your Friday night poetry reading on video

June 12, 2020

Here’s this week’s reading: poems about homes. I’ve lived in at least 25 homes in my 80 years, so I appreciate finally being settled.

This video took me ages to edit because I decided to show photos of at least some of the 25 homes that I can remember living in. (You didn’t need to know that, but I needed to say it.)

My apartment is 1940s art deco … like me

photo of art deco apartment block near a tree-covered hill

How lucky are if we have a home, any home! I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else in the world.

Photo credits for poems about homes

  1. St David and St Columba church, Fairlie, Bernard Sprages, public domain
  2. Akaroa, Jenny Scott, CC BY 2.0
  3. Hinds, Brian NZ, CC BY 2.0
  4. Belfast aerial view, Christchurch City Council
  5. Christchurch Cathedral Square Christchurch 1926, Christchurch City Libraries
  6. Geneva, Patrick Nouhailler, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
  7. Puponga, Rachel McAlpine CC BY 2.0
  8. Kyoto street, Christian Junker CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
  9. Rixon Grove, Rachel McAlpine CC BY 2.0
  10. All other photos in the public domain (Taranaki, Masterton, others?)

 

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7 thoughts on “Poems about homes: your Friday night poetry reading on video”

  1. cedar51 says:
    June 12, 2020 at 4:52 pm

    25 homes!

    Wow, but then as you begin your poems in the clip, we see “many from before you could choose your own home, any home” Whereas I in my childhood didn’t move much – it was later a 5 year stint abroad where flats came and went. Then there was a nearly 20 year gap where I jointly owned a home, but then that was abandoned and I’ve never owned a home again…long stints in some rentals through this one 3.1/2 years.

    Your current home, looks interesting – Art Deco always has interesting “curves” – thanks for sharing your homes.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:
      June 12, 2020 at 9:51 pm

      I look back and see a certain rhythm.

  2. Prue says:
    June 12, 2020 at 6:16 pm

    Evokes many memories of houses past! Thanks Rachel 👏🏻

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:
      June 12, 2020 at 9:48 pm

      Thaa

    2. Rachel McAlpine says:
      June 12, 2020 at 9:48 pm

      So glad to hear this, Prue.

  3. Elizabeth says:
    June 14, 2020 at 11:35 am

    Another lovely Friday reading with you(and Ursula makes a walk-on appearance.) I posted today about Anne Bradstreet, Puritan poet, who wrote about the burning of her house. She maintains she shouldn’t care, but it is very obvious that whe does.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:
      June 14, 2020 at 11:54 am

      Yes, it is obvious. I’ve been watching the latest Queer Eye home makeovers on Netflix, and what relief the right space can bring.

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