Finding our way back home

He heard Dr. King. I was blessed with the opportunity today to hear from C. Michael Gray, a black professor from Ohio University who participated actively in the Civil Rights movement. Someone who was there in the discussion with Dr. Gray mentioned Rosa Parks and her involvement in the Highlander workshops. These workshops "always ended with a closing discussion called 'Finding Your Way Back Home.'" Participants were asked "what they planned to do once they returned home" (Theoharis).

I was caught up in the idea of "finding your way back home" as I listened to Dr. Gray talk to us about his fears and friends, his hardships and adventures marching in Montgomery, Alabama. I thought about our journey on Earth being a time to find our way back home. And I wrote this poem as he spoke to us.


Finding our way back home
by Ethan Unklesbay


We come to learn.
We come to grow.
We come to change.
We come to become.
We come to enjoy.
We come to lose.

We come to suffer.

We come to be blinded and to truly see.

We come to connect.

We come to believe and laugh and cry.

We come to be moved.

We come to see danger.

We come to put our lives on the line.

We come because we want to.

We come because we have to.

We come to live and die.

We come to listen.

We come for passion

We come to feed.

We come to give a home.

We come to visit.

We come to worry.

We come to interact.

We come to wait.

We come to separate.
We come together.

We come to be fed.

We come to face fears.

We come to get away.

We come to smile.

We come to hurt.

We come to remember.

We come to be afraid.

We come to overcome.

We come for better days.

We come for truth.

We come to be a part of something.

We come to make Mother proud.

We come to trust.

We come to be brave.

We come to make decisions.

We come to watch the times change.

We come to light the torch;
We pass it on to others who will come.

We come to know ourselves.

We come to grow up.

We come to forgive.

We come to get lost.

We come to find our way back home.