Childhood homes

Memories are carried 

The starting line matters

Where you come from

Cannot be severed 

Even when we leave in haste

Even when we are displaced

Even when we never go back

Even when we would prefer to stay

Still childhood places remain

In dreams in reality they shape

Distance does not diminish

Where life began 

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Childhood homes meditates on the enduring imprint of origin — suggesting that the places which first hold us continue to shape identity, memory and longing, even across distance, displacement and departure.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.