Heather Neill :: Signaling Home

Standing high on the bluff

rising over Stonewall Beach

on the island of Martha’s Vineyard

where centuries of wind and waves

have been chiseling the shoreline back

further with each blow

after stormy blow

Where generations of Langmuir hands

have moved that dotted line of great white rocks signaling safety in the moonlight

pulling them back and then

further back again

On that grassy sandy ledge

that has listened to my heart

taken the measure of my Muses

rounded off my edges

and holds all I know of love

Here on this edge

of all that I hold sacred

I plant my soul

holding tightly to my flags

and signaling HOME.

I am home.

local color :: thomas hart benton's vineyard narrative

Thomas Hart Benton on his self-portrait: “This is a study from the mirror images of an old artist, ‘Grandaddy Benton,’ as all the kids call me. I had a belly when I did it, but after building a stone retaining wall, 65 feet long and in some places 10 feet high, on our place in Martha's Vineyard, I got rid of it. It hasn't come back.”