Traveling To Where I Am

my mind is headed westward now

to New York’s western door

where i grew my independence

for fourteen years before

my heart is headed farther north

for numbing in the cold

the cost of what i then endured

the confidence i sold

my soul is headed southerly

for warmth and growth and change

i feel the dying of the year

rise bold and new and strange

my body in the east remains

to tread familiar ground

to sleep and fret and feed and sweat

to write to paint to sound

around around around around