poem : longing for home
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The Longing for Home
by Wayne Dunkley

have you ever
listened
to your longing?

a longing
beyond words
beyond sighs
beyond tears

it lives
closer
than a lover’s
embrace

it roots you
and sends you wandering

the longing
for home

even now
we ache for home
a people to embrace
a life to share

the longing for home
is found in our spirits
memories
of a place never seen
reminders
of a joy yet to come

for a time we live here
we are given time
to learn
the deep waters
of home

for a time we live here
we are given others
who drink & laugh
taste & cry
the deep waters

for a time
this is
enough

and then

we listen to the call
of deep waters
to the longing

we are consumed
by what it is
and what we are not

we walk
and run
and fly
hoping it will not follow

the longing is an unspoken cry
it feeds us
and draws us away

estrangement
from ourselves
and others

to listen to the longing
is to chance a spirit
broken
a heart
hardened
lost promises

to listen
is to be left alone
hungry and choking
thirsting in the darkness
of our own choosing

we carry
we groan
we struggle
with becoming
trees bowed
humbled
by wind

a struggle of regrets
yet

we wish to show
what grows inside
conceived
in love
and nurtured
by the ache

there is so much more to home
there is so much more to longing
than a word
or a glance
can give

maybe the longing will scatter us
maybe we will be gathered
maybe all we long to give
will find a home

have you ever
embraced
your longings?