There is something about a good place that makes where you live feel even more like home.

I’m talking about the places outside of your home that you find yourself in and still feel “at home.”

Maybe these places are good because they’re comfortable, they’re aesthetic. Or maybe these spots are good because of the food they serve or drinks they pour. Or maybe they’re great because whenever you’re there you run into someone you love. Or perhaps you feel more like yourself when you’re there.

As I’m writing, good places are coming to mind: Wilson’s Coffee, Racine Public Library, Maple Grove Park, Art Metals Studio, Red Onion Cafe, Zoo Beach, River Bend, Dragon Pit BBQ.

In these spaces, I feel connected, cared for, quiet, enlivened, appreciated, fed… The list goes on.

I write the beginning of this prompt on Tuesday, the 18th. I hope that by the time this publishes, I’ve written a few “odes” to the places listed above.

Join me in celebrating your favorite Racine spots with a little poem of appreciation.

At the library

Above Lake Michigan,
shelves full of offerings.
A quiet space welcomes all,
a democratic form comes to life.
At the library, I am no one.
Shelves tunnel endlessly
toward stories for tomorrow.
Scattered tables hold neighbors,
gathering yet silent.
At the library, lives are continuous.
Togetherness echoes
against book covers,
back-to-back-to-back,
like little homes lining city blocks.
At the library, there are options.

Little park around the bend

There is a little park around the bend
that you’d never see coming.
It’s wooded and winding,
and little. I mean, so small.
You’d think it wasn’t even there,
tucked under homes and roads,
left alone for the most part.
Except for when I find myself
there, also alone,
in the middle of the woods,
in the middle of the city,
a pocket of quiet,
so very small.
A secret space,
open to all,
found by few,
waiting.


More odes to come!

Happy Monday,
L.A. Sklba