" I am from California"

I AM FROM CALIFORNIA

I am from light on the water,
And the shimmering leaves of live oaks in summer.
I am from the Camino Real
And the California missions;
I am from the Pacific ocean in all seasons,
From the Big Sur to Mexico:
Flying buttresses of sandstone and the jade ponies
Dancing and prancing to shore with foaming manes,
From sage and chaparral,
Here where the stardust lands with the moonshadows
On the great golden hills.

I am from the summer tamales and ripe avocados,
The women in red satin on white horses; from
Ave Maria, and Carmelita, and Tio Juan, and Pancho,
From Soledad and Dolores.
I am from the high highs, and low lows,
The laughter and melancholy;
The puns and nicknames and poems,
the hysteria and grief,
From Cinderella's slippers, and Rumpelstiltskin's threats;
I am from the stations of the cross and the rosary,
And the hunger for the bread of angels.

I am from California, in the eighth generation,
Only loosely tied to America the beautiful.
I carry a green strand from Ireland,
Where the FitzGerald cattle walk home
On the shingle of the western shore;
We eat enchiladas with green chiles for St. Patrick's day.
I carry the songs of my grandmother,
Who sang like the swallows coming home
To Capistrano;
And from my father at the piano
Holding every melody in the warbling songs.
I am from the 40 boxes of Dad's slides and photos,
The paintings on the walls,
The portraits of my sisters,
The house like a living museum,
The Spanish silk shawls on the balcony,
The cut glass vases,
The bowers of roses,
The music box with the gilded cherubs, the dappled light on the patio in summer,
The red geraniums in the terra cotta planters.
I am from California,
From light on the water,
Where the stardust lands with the moonshadows
On the great golden hills.