People often speak of rural Western Oklahoma as the middle of nowhere

McCraw, Catherine

English

SWOSU Digital Commons (Southwestern Oklahoma State University)

Volume 34Issue 2 Winter Article 1712-15-2018Nowhere is NowhereCatherine McCrawAbstractPeople often speak of rural Western Oklahoma as the middle of nowhere.Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westviewPart of the Fiction Commons, Nonfiction Commons, Photography Commons, and the PoetryCommonsThis Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals atSWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Westviewby an authorized administrator of SWOSU Digital Commons. For moreinformation, please contact phillip.fitzsimmons@swosu.edu.Recommended CitationMcCraw, Catherine (2018) "Nowhere is Nowhere," Westview: Vol. 34 : Iss. 2 , Article 17.Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westview/vol34/iss2/1745WestvieW44Nowhere is NowhereWestview Poetry Contest Community Winnerby Catherine McCraw People often speakof rural Western Oklahomaas the middle of nowhere.I have been here thirty-odd years.All my adult life has been spentin a small, flat town,crisscrossed here and there by railroad tracksand surrounded by windswept fields.In the middle of nowhereI have fallen in and out of love,been sick and well,“starred” in community theater,learned to write poems,made and squandered money,owned and buried pets,acquired and lost friends,encountered three versions of Godin the Episcopal, Lutheran, and finallyCatholic Church.In the middle of nowhere45volume 34, number 244Nowhere is NowhereMcCrawI’ve grown gray,grown lined,grown thick around the waist,grown in wisdom,grown in faith,grown in hard-won endurance.Everything that happens in the human hearthappens in small towns.There’s nowhere to unloadthe freight of human life,with all its burdens and spare graces.There is no actual nowhere anywhere.Nowhere is safe.

Nowhere is Nowhere

https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3680&amp;context=westview

Nowhere is Nowhere

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

SWOSU Digital Commons (Southwestern Oklahoma State University)