To the Doves on Distant Oaks

To the Doves on Distant Oaks

Tommy Welty

I used to write poems
but now I write lists:

of ten-thousand places I think I’ve called home,
of coffee, of thunder, of ancient bleached bones,
of lemons and ribbons, bright mornings amidst --

I used to write poems.

But I forgot how to groan,
to miss what was missed
in the ten-thousand places I once called home,
I forgot my feet beneath the loam,
I forgot what it felt like to push, to resist --

I used to write poems.

But I’m not sure I’ve known
to take the words that kissed
the ten-thousand places that people call home

and let them roam,
to exist,
to be used to write poems
of ten-thousand places I think I’ve called home.

---

Tommy Welty
Poet & Pastor

Tommy is a poet and pastor in Southern California. He lives there with his wife, Alyssa, and two children, Atticus and Gwen. His writing and poetry has been featured at Christ and Pop Culture, The Curator, Rock & Sling, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. Follow him on Twitter @tommywelty.

Photography by Fre Perez