Homecoming

Lori Janick

March 24, 2024

At thirteen I walked through 

the doors of my new home, 

not the strangely structured house

of my parent's choosing

where teenage angst and 

homesickness would haunt 

the rooms for years but

the local library, newly built 

and filled with wonder, worlds 

of words and kind women

who knew their way through

the labyrinth, stories like signposts

as far as the heart could see.

Welcome, whooshed the doors 

on entry, come and find

your future, explore portals 

to the past, wander through

the English moors and shores

of Avonlea, ride wild horses

into realms where every page is 

possibility, where every word beckons 

to who you will become.

Even now, the doors are open.

Even now, stories begin.

Lori Janick was a children's librarian for 33 years where she witnessed daily the power of words to shape our world. Her work has appeared in the Round Top Poetry Anthology. She now devotes her time to writing, gardening, and reading poetry to her attentive dog.