“Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon
Subject
- English & Language Arts
Language
English — USUpdated
Get the Reading
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments —
snapped before I budded —
leaf-fall from the family tree. 1
You can use the Where I’m From Brainstorm handout to help students write their own Where I’m From poems.
- 1George Ella Lyon, “Where I’m From,” georgeellalyon.com. Copyright © 1999 by George Ella Lyon. Reproduced with permission.
How to Cite This Reading
Facing History & Ourselves, ““Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon”, last updated December 1, 2021.