Since moving back to Racine as an adult, I occasionally find myself in a place I recognize from the past, greeting me in a new way.

This was the case when I recently found myself utilizing the Perry Ave. post office for the first time as an adult. I pulled up and instantly recognized the building. I had been there before, often as a child with my parents, but never actually knew where we were. The building’s interior felt familiar, felt frozen in time. I was uniquely aware of the passage of time as I waited in line to ship my package.

I’ve recently been spending more time at River Bend, a place that holds the strongest ties to childhood birthday parties and school field trips in my mind. I’ve found myself wandering the trails with my kid and cross country skiing alone, taking in the winter days, enjoying the quiet that is often hard to find in Racine. There’s a fondness here, as I recall my younger self while carrying my current self through these woods.

It’s been good to find myself in the process of reorientation to spaces of my past, both significant and small. That’s been the only way to make Racine feel like a place to call home again.

With that in mind, here’s the prompt I’m offering myself this week, and also you:

Consider a space in Racine (or wherever you are) that holds specific significance for your past self while still being a space of meaning in your current life. Write a two stanza poem reflecting the differences of the place across time: the first stanza from your memories, the second stanza highlighting your current relationship to the place. Simply title the poem with the name of the place, whether that be as specific as “River Bend” or as vague as “The front stoop on Indiana Street.”

As February wraps up, I’ll be looking back on some recent prompts I’ve posted here and spending more time writing in response. Next week, I hope to be sharing some of those pieces with you.

That’s all for today. Thanks for being here. And as always, you’re more than welcome to share your own writing with me at sklblauren@gmail.com.

Best,
L.A. Sklba