For centuries, the hearth has been a symbol for home. Nothing equals our home in importance to us, except perhaps what we do for a living. Our home is often our chief source of comfort. Our activities of daily living take place there. We interact with our loved ones and relatives who live with us there. Sometimes those relations can be strained, especially now, as many families have been thrown together in close quarters for long periods of time because of the pandemic. This, and all the other home activities, can be good subjects for poems because they lend themselves to emotions. No subject brings up as many feelings as the home does. It is often the most personal thing we have, other than our own inner thoughts and feelings.
Home means so many different things to different people. In poetry, it can be literal or symbolic. A home can be the location of childhood memories or the place of a broken relationship; it can be symbolic of simple pleasures such as eating and gardening or the work of doing household chores.
You can write poetry about the home using your physical senses and what you see around you. Themes come up such as meal time, which may be the only time you get together with your family to catch up on the day’s events. Consider writing about what meal time is like in your house. What are the smells and tastes of the food your loved one is cooking in the oven? Do you smell the spices-- the paprika on the roasted chicken, the oregano and garlic on the spaghetti, the cinnamon on the apple pie baking in the oven? All this is part of the experience of life at home.
There are many other poetic home themes; for example, what are the night sounds you hear right before bedtime? What is the neighborhood like where you live? What do you see every morning when you wake up and look out your bedroom window?
The home has taken on new meaning with the pandemic because so many of us now work from home, while we didn’t before. It may be challenging if you have had to convert old spaces and create new ones in your home for work. Perhaps you’ve made a workspace out of a backyard shed, or your garage, or even a large closet. If you’ve had to repurpose and recycle some room in your life into something else, try writing about that, and noting how you feel about all the changes.
Home has much power and influence in our lives. It is the place we leave at dawn to go make our way in the world, and the place we come back to at dusk for our rest when the day’s work is done, both literally and symbolically. Many people would prefer to die at home; loved ones speak of their deceased relatives as having gone home. Many want to be buried near the place where they were born or grew up. Home is where we come from and often want to return to late in our lives. It is both a physical place and a spiritual one. From your children running around the living room chairs playing tag, to sitting in front of the fireplace with your husband or wife staring into the flame, holding each other, the emotions produced can all be wonderful topics for poems.
It is also true that not everyone has had a happy home life. Some have suffered abuse in their youth, or may have been orphaned or raised in unhappy foster home situations. Others may be homeless or have experienced it. Powerful poems can also be written about such experiences. Not all poems are about happy emotions or situations. Some of the greatest poems have been written about the most difficult circumstances. There is a kind of emotional release (catharsis) to writing out negative experiences that can be very healing and helpful.
There have been many fine poems written about home. At the end of this essay I have included a link to a list of poems about home and hearth that I hope you will enjoy.
So, think about home and home-life as your next subject to write about or read about. You may find it offers an especially rich source of thoughts and feelings to mine.
List of poems about hearth and home: