The Where I’m From poem grew out of poet George Ella Lyon’s response to a poem from Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet, a collection of 54 monologues and dialogues by Appalachian playwright and poet Jo Carson, based on conversations she overheard in East Tennessee. (Orchard Books, 1989; Theater Communications Group, 1991)
In Lyons’ own words:
“In the summer of 1993, I decided to see what would happen if I made my own Where I’m From list, which I did, in a black and white speckled composition book. I edited it into a poem – not my usual way of working, but…the process was too rich and too much fun to give up after only one poem. Realizing this, I decided to try it as an exercise with other writers, and it immediately took off. The form is simple and familiar, and the question of where you are from reaches deep.
Since then, the poem as a writing prompt has traveled in amazing ways. People have used it at their family reunions, teachers have used it with kids all over the United States, in Ecuador and China; they have taken it to girls in juvenile detention, to men in prison for life, and to refugees in a camp in Sudan. Its life beyond my notebook is a testimony to the power of poetry, of roots, and of teachers. My thanks to all of you who have taken it to heart.”
Where I’m From
I am from clothespins, from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride. I am from the dirt under the back porch. (Black, glistening, it tasted like beets.) I am from the forsythia bush the Dutch elm whose long-gone limbs I remember as if they were my own. I’m from fudge and eyeglasses, from Imogene and Alafair. I’m from the know-it-alls and the pass-it-ons, from Perk up! and Pipe down! I’m from He restoreth my soul with a cottonball lamb and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch, fried corn and strong coffee. From the finger my grandfather lost to the auger, the eye my father shut to keep his sight. Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures, to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments— snapped before I budded— leaf-fall from the family tree.
