L Milton Hankins Poet Elegiac Lyric

Notes About The Poem

[from Ashes on the Snow, L. Milton Hankins, CreateSpace, 2010]

The Old Homeplace

I sift this charred and barren earth
     for one small piece
     of yesterday

Though all has melted like winter ice
     before a fierce and ruthless fire.
The mansion house,
     its lattice green
     and columns white,
     shutters and vanes
     are gone.

The sounds of moving, living
     sharing and giving
     are silent.

And no more the folks
     who walked these paths
     and made this hallowed ground.


Revised January 9, 2021
For Good Old Days Contest

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Darlene De Beaulieu October 27, 2020 at 11:11 AM Hello Lmilton Hankins, it is sad when a home burns to the ground. I hope you found a place to live. enjoy your day my friend. Darlene De Beaulieu October 29, 2020 at 10:46 AM Hello Limilton Hanins, oh it was your grandmother's home. I hope she has fond a place to live. Yes that would be a difficult time. Are you still in the military? If not waht are you doing now? Enjoy your day my friend. L Milton Hankins October 27, 2020 at 12:15 PM Darlene, I was in the military at the time, and my widowed grandmother was living there alone. it was a sad, difficult time. I worked on the poem for a long time trying to get it just right.

L Milton Hankins October 27, 2020 at 8:48 AM This poem was inspired by the loss of my maternal grandparent's beautiful house in West Virginia.