Poems, Essays, and Musings
Straight From My Heart
by
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After living in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area for 44 years, after traveling to 34 of the 50 United States, and after traveling to 24 countries on 3 continents, the South’s appeal lured me back home. I now live on the “home place” on my family’s farm. My parents have passed away, but I feel their presence every day. When I walk the fields where they walked, it is as if I can still see their footprints. It feels like walking on hallowed ground. When I smell the unmistakable odor of fresh turned soil in spring, it is as if my father is turning it with his old single-tree plow. When I eat pears from the tree he planted, I am still literally enjoying the fruits of his labor. When I tend my vegetable garden, it is as if they are tending it with me. Though my garden is a postage stamp-sized version of theirs, I tend it with the same loving care I learned under their tutelage so many years ago.
The peace and contentment that comes with living in the South again continually reminds me that growing up in a loving, caring, supportive, family was such a blessing. My soul looks back and is eternally grateful for the nurture I received here. It banished the ghosts of segregation and racism, erased the sting of stereotypical judgments, and rendered impotent the ignorant actions that could have sabotaged my self-esteem.
It is appropriate that my story ends where it began. In the South, my South. My soul looks back and wonders how I ever lived anywhere else.
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About the Book
Poems, Essays, and Musings Straight From My Heart is a collection of poems and essays that the author has written over the years. She uses her love of words to express her thoughts, feelings, thanks, appreciation, and admiration to her family and friends. The author hopes that going that extra mile to cloak her ordinary expressions in poetic finery lets her family and friends know how much they really mean to her.
About the Author
Elsie M. Barnes was born on May 26, 1946 in Halifax County near Scotland Neck, NC. She spent her early years working alongside her family in the fi elds of their small farm. She attended Elizabeth City State Teachers College from 1964-1966. She left school and relocated to Washington, DC where she worked for AT&T. After a 23 year hiatus, she resumed her college studies at the University of Maryland University College where she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Studies in 1991. Elsie’s love of words started when she was in grade school. She quickly learned that books transported her from her rural, rather limited setting tofaraway, exotic places. She loved to read her geography textbooks and feels that fostered her love of travel. She also read the family’s dictionary and often quizzed her father on word meanings. During the summer months, the author’s mother ran a lending library in their home. She housed books, supplied by the county, for the neighborhood children to read while school was closed for the summer. Elsie voraciously read every book that was housed. In 1998, she retired from AT&T after 32 years of service. In 2010, she moved back to her hometown of Scotland Neck, NC where she is active in the community. She enjoys traveling, tending her vegetable garden, and hunting for treasures in thrift stores and junk shops. She has one daughter, Hope, and one son-in-law, David, who live in Clinton, MD.