A Place To Lay Your Hat
A poem about home
Home.
Is it where the happy heart is? The place you lay your hat? A space that’s filled with books and love, All the ‘this’ and ‘that’?
Or is it the place you lay your head? A spot that’s warm and soft, Where you nuzzle against the one you love, As your soul floats aloft?
Is it physical, this home of yours? A place to rest your bones, A chair to curl up in, A place you’ve always known?
For me, home is many places, Like the land I grew up in, A place where all my family live, Where I feel loved by kith and kin.
But it’s also this beautiful new place, When young, it captured my heart, The water, forest, language, and folk, For decades we were apart.
Now this pretty archipelago Is the place that I call home, It was passionate love that brought me here, My heart no longer roams.
It seems home is where my heart is, For if he should choose to move, I would be following close behind him, Over waters, rough or smooth.
So I lay my hat, my heart, my soul In my warm and cozy home, A soft place, a quiet space, Where he and I both grow.
Thank you to Kathy Jacobs for this prompt! I have often contemplated what and where home is. Is it a feeling? A place? People?
I have come to the conclusion, after not quite 50 years on the planet, and after several moves, that is more a feeling than a place for me. Feelings make or break my attitude towards a place.
I am now settled in a beautiful part of the world. It is calm and peaceful, a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of the big city I moved from. I like the peace it has brought me.
Growing up I was also a huge Paul Young fan! His version of the song, Wherever I Lay My Hat (that’s my home), written by Marven Gaye, Barrett Strong, and Norman Whitfield, was on high rotation when I was a teen. So this poem carries a little inspiration from it ❤
~thanks for reading~
Lisa writes poetry and other things from her home in Finland. She moved to this part of the world over two years ago, and now has time to explore her creativity through writing, songwriting, singing, and photography (amongst other things). If you’d like to keep in touch, Northern Notes is her newsletter.
