Commentary Series (VPR)
7:55am and 5:55pm Weekdays
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Monday May 5, 2008
My Vermont: Maxine Leary
My name is Maxine Leary. I have lived all my 78 years in Vermont,
though I've done a lot of traveling during that time.
I grew up in the Old North End of Burlington and for the last 13 years have lived in Montpelier, where I love the small-town community atmosphere with its vibrancy, culture and arts.
As a Sister of Mercy for 20 years I was known as Sister Augustine (which is how some of my former students like US Senator Patrick Leahy remember me.)
I've always been interested in poetry, and wrote my first poem at 14.
I wrote this poem especially for a nephew who grew up in Montpelier but at the time was working overseas. I think a Vermonter's life-story and geography resemble each other, so the poem has many layers of meaning. It's called Vermont Home
These are your roots
These granite hills
Of home
Bedrock
Beneath
Hosannah color
Trumpeting
The Fall of Winter.
Here is your sustenance
Child
Grown in the
Fertile green
Of valleys
Watered by
Small rivers
Flowing free.
Here find your treasure
Hid
In the scar
Of gorges
Carved in the
Deepened dark
So long ago.
Here
In the blue
Of snow-fed lake
You'll see
Your face
By sunset light
In peace
In this place
That is
Always
Yours.
(copyright 2000 by this registrant)
Montpelier VT
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