One more quick blog about place. I recently discovered Poetry Thursday. It's such a great concept; the hosts post a writing prompt every Sunday, and then anyone who wants to can play with the prompt and post the resulting poem on their blog on Thursday. This week, the site suggested being inspired by a street. I am cheating a bit--this is a poem I wrote several years ago, and today is Friday, not Thursday, but I hope to participate in future prompts on a more timely basis.

The poem, Sheridan Square, honors the street I grew up on in Evanston, IL, right on the border of Chicago. You can see it on Google Maps here.

Sheridan Square

It wasn't a square, really,
just half of one,
the L-shaped street
I grew up on.
I loved saying I lived
on an L-shaped street;
maybe that's where my love
of letters grew from,
living on the forearm
of those two perpendicular lines,
lines that instantly lulled me
as I turned the corner
at the green mail box
on the way home from school,
the L bent like an elbow,
holding me close
to the heart of my life.