Draw a picture of home — whatever kind of place represents home to you. And draw it with the hand you don’t normally use when you write.
That’s what Constance Alexander, our workshop leader for Poetry and Pints, had us doing Thursday night at Hopkinsville Brewing.
Constance, a poet and playwright from Murray who also writes columns about art and culture, chose “home” as the focus for our poetry workshop. Hoptown Chronicle and WKMS sponsored the gathering that attracted 25 people — most of whom don’t often write poems. Drawing a picture and doing it with the “weak” hand wasn’t what I expected when I joined the workshop, but it certainly got us thinking about the details that are essential in poetry and prose.
And considering the week we’ve just had in Hopkinsville, trying to come back from a hellish storm that damaged some of our favorite places, it felt cathartic to write about home.
I tend to travel back in time when I’m indulging in a creative pursuit. So when Constance asked us to draw home, I made a sketch of the kitchen in my family’s first Hopkinsville home. We landed here from Memphis in 1966, when I was 4 years old, and our house on West Riverwood in Givens Addition had a big square-shaped kitchen with yellow carpeting (and maybe greenish paneled walls).
There was a rotary-dial telephone mounted to the wall. It was probably avocado green. I know it had a very long cord from the phone to the receiver. So long you could stretch way into the den or dining room and still be connected to a call.
Back in the day, a phone was a phone. It was never lost. It commanded attention. When it rang, someone answered. I miss that. Although now I’m one of the creeps who doesn’t want to answer the phone in my pocket if I don’t recognize the number. Good lord. What has become of our curiosity? Our sense of adventure? (Oh, yeah, the car warranty people killed those.)
See, I got all of that rambling and memory just from drawing a picture and reminiscing about my first home in Hopkinsville.
Others in the group wrote about their lives and homes today.
My friend Becky Dearman wrote a beautiful poem about her home and agreed to let me share it. The prompt from Constance was to write directions to your home.
2615 On Your Road
Listen for her laughter, she is your North Star.
Continue down the road once thought to be wrong.
Realize it was always the right road, your road.
Walk in. Pet the hounds. Have a drink. Know you are home.
Thanks to everyone who came out for Poetry and Pints. We’ll try to do it again.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
