Writing Portfolio: The Western Daughter

I started this poem a few years ago but had never finished it.  I was taking a class during undergrad called "Literature of the American West."  I was inspired by some of the poetry and prose and tried my own.  During this semester, I opened up some of my old work and revised/finished some pieces.  This is one of them...

The Western Daughter

It's a well kept secret that everybody knows,

Felt in the wind, a legend it blows,

Of hardworking hands and soft loving hearts,

Of new beginnings and much needed starts.

... this is my dream...

Come across the hills, if you're lost, please rest here.

Don't catch all my wishes, if they are free, they will grow.

A fence, a garden, dogs in the yard,

beyond the property line, stretches miles of land.

Who's to tame it?  Who's to say?  This is the spirit land.

Trial by fire is how we learn. It's not the easy way

but it has been done.  It's in community.  It's in unity.

Every dream will pour from my chest.  I could search the whole world wide,

only to come back to my home in the West.

And so it is, a safe place to be.

Wild at heart, the mountains we see.

Felt in the wind, floats in the water.

Mother West, I am simply her daughter.