At Home Among Friends
after the painting “In the Garden”
[Celia Thaxter in Her Garden]” by Childe Hassam
by Michael Escoubas

She is so much more herself
here
on Appledore Isle

where the fragrance of flowers
becomes the life-nectar she needs

where Lowell, Emerson, Whittier
and Thoreau once strode

here
where sea breezes opened windows
to her mind

where poems and children’s stories
poured forth as from the sea’s
deep well

here
she walks among scented rainbows
crimson poppies, high grasses
wet with dew

here
on Appledore
no longer landlocked with a husband
who refused to know her mind

she breathes sea-salt air
among friends she has come
to know
 

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