As for the querencia,
we all have a place where we feel safest,
even if it is only the idea of a place,
maybe an idea by itself,
the place that all our being radiates out from,
like an idea of friendship or justice
or perhaps something simpler
like the memory of a back porch
where we laughed a low
and how the setting sun
through the pine trees shone on the green chairs,
flickered off the ice cubes in our glasses.
~ Stephen Dobyns, from “Querencia,” Velocities: New and Selected Poems, 1966-1992
Notes:
- Stephen Dobyns Bio: Poetry Foundation
- Querencia definition: wiki.
- Poem Source: Memory’s Landscape
- Photo Source: MennyFox55