A View from Home

By Cheryl Moskowitz

Right now, there is not much of anywhere that any of us can go outside of our own homes. Schools are closed, so are theatres, cinemas, soft play areas, playgrounds. So are cafes and restaurants, museums, galleries, zoos and aquariums. Children having a playdate with their friends is out. Sleepovers, birthday outings, going away on holiday with family, is out. None of this is possible right now. Our choices of where to go, how to spend time, and who to spend it with, are severely restricted.

Home has taken on new meaning. For now, in this age of Covid-19, home is where we all must stay. We should embrace it. Sing it, play it, dance it, write it, remember it.

The word home does not have to refer to an actual place, the house or flat that you live in. We can use the word home to mean where we feel most happy, most comfortable, most like ourselves.

When I was seven my teacher read the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost, to our class. I loved the sound and feel of it. I felt ‘at home’ with the images and the rhythm. Sometimes a great poem by someone else can inspire you to write a poem of your own. Robert Frost’s poem inspired me to write this one:

Though none of us can venture far from home at the moment, there is much that each one of us can do to share what we see and what we notice from our own corners, our own vantage points at home. Indeed, being confined to home affords us space and time that we don’t usually have, to focus closely on what we see and hear around us. When we are not so busy doing, we can busy ourselves with noticing.

As artists, we have different modes of expressing ourselves. However, what we choose to make the subject matter of our art tells others what is most important to us, it is a way of letting people know what we are thinking about, and how we feel.

Poetry is a good way of expressing love or longing for a place or people we hold dear.[1] Poetry can also be a way of painting a picture with words or freezing a moment in time.[2] Poetry can also help us to look more closely at the world around us, notice it more intently and celebrate what we see.[3]

Maybe, if you take the time to write down some of what you are noticing right now – your own view from home – these ‘noticings’ will become something special: a poem, a dance, a song, a painting, a play. Something you can record, remember and share with others.

And because it’s Spring and the days are becoming lighter for longer, or more likely because we suddenly have the gift of time and a narrowing of the space we spend it in, the window we have on the world is more focused, more precise and everything we see seems bigger. Here is a list of things I have begun to notice from my window over the past few days:

the bird song is stronger

the foxes are fatter

the crows are bolder

the buds are bigger

the flowers are frillier

the stars are brighter

the moon is clearer

the sky is bluer

people are kinder

applause is louder

moods are calmer

dreams are wilder