Home Poem by Alfred Barna

Where is home, now that home has gone?
All the sights, sounds, and smells of family are now shadow
Once we fled in our teenaged scorn
In search of the things we yearned to discover; in a hurry to grow
Now that we are older, I seek ways to find same fabled place
Where all about me, were brother, sister, and familiar face
I strive to shield my children the way I as a child ‘til storm would pass
Outside the thunder boomed, and the rain would pour
But inside I was protected as we watched it from behind the glass
That sacred porch, we sat and waited for what the world was for
They say that home again, is someplace that you will never find
I say that can't be, because it sits in my heart and flows in my mind
I see it on the expressions of my sisters, and of my brothers
It hides within aunts, and uncles, and in-laws; but look close, you will see
That it is the very essence of utopia we see in all others
As we pass through our days, and we long for a reunion in eternity
Remember once, remember now, and remember that all that we hope to know
That we long to return to Our Home, and it's to there we shall all go

How do you say good-bye, when all I wish is for you to stay?
You have decided that the time has come to leave us here
The Sirens are singing and calling you to join them away
Here you leave me sad and despondent and filled with fear
I have lost a part of me from where all my life has come
I have lost the womb in which the stars have all sung
Perhaps it is hard for us to ever understand
That you rest in a place until your body and souls are anew
Although we know we all return once again to the sand
It's difficult for man to admit this is something that we must do
All our days, we search for purpose and live out our days
Until the time where our strength will no longer allow us to raise
Raising families, finding adventure, searching distant shores
We must remember the Grace of God is our greatest cause
It binds us to all things, to all creation, and to us all one another
No matter what we do, and how far away we wish to roam
We must return again to that place, our birthplace, our Mother
Where also the Father awaits always, calling us to our Home

They say you can't go back; but ahead you shall forge, until the day you wake up and say
I have searched and searched to find that place that I remember as a child
A place of comfort, a place where I peered out first to see the world
When the world made me uneasy, I would remain here safe, yet peer out from time to time
Until I got strong enough to go away from the place I had known all my life
To discover that to find such a place again would be the source of my strife
Oh Father, even when I was most lost and wandering, within the darkest night, with no one in which to share
I had found myself in my heart being with you, and remembering that there is a place there
You had it prepared all this time, but stubbornly, I said no thank you please
I forgot my pride, and humbly sank down upon the ground upon my knees
Home is another name for heaven, another name for faith, another name for Love
Home is where everything returns to, upon which every star hangs in the universe above

Now I am no longer a child, and the rain shall fall down upon my body, cold to wear
But let it rain down, oh Lord, let it rain; fill my soul with your tears
I have but few souls to mourn, but oh Lord, you have many millions in which to bear
Throughout the story of man, throughout thousands of years
I know, there comes a day, when the clouds will part and a light will appear
And a sound sweeter than spring shall be heard in all of those ears
A multitude of men will become as children again, saying I am coming home
I am coming home
And a great door will open, and we shall all step inside, and every heart will be rend
Without the weight of our pride we are lifted into an endless joy that all transcend
Father into your arms I rest my weary soul, Father I am coming home
I am coming home