Sometimes I like to return
to a swelling in the ground
where my parents settled.
It gives me peace to pause
there and recall their voices,
see their faces and believe
they have returned from that
faraway world where spirits
live and speak their language.
I hear a part of myself speak
certain kinds of words I sense
make them glad I’m back again.
Coming back home isn’t always
as joyous as it is thought to be,
but this carved stone bearing Clarence
and Dorothy welcomes me back, makes
me feel at home in a way that no other
place anywhere else ever has done.
Former Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf, a native of Jasper in Dubois County, is the author of 19 poetry collections, the latest being “Songs for All Souls,” “Ida Hagan of the Pinkston Freedom Settlement,” and “Bloodroot: Indiana Poems,” a retrospective collection, with new poems. He is also the author of “Homecomings: A writer’s Memoir” that covers the fifty plus years of his writing and publishing life.