Laurence Overmire - Look Homeward, Angel lyrics

“Where shall the weary rest? When shall the lonely of heart come home? What doors are open for the wanderer? And which of us shall find his father, know his face, and in what place, and in what time, and in what land? ” –Thomas Wolfe, from “Of Time and the River” It took a while to find And if you didn't know where to look You'd never know it was there. The home I mean of Thomas Wolfe —in the thirties— The great Southern novelist. I'd heard he lived in Brooklyn for a time Same as me, rented an apartment, but where? I finally found a Reference in a book somewhere With an address—the basement of number 40 Verandah Place. It was my neighborhood, as it turns out Just down the street Somewhere below the Heights and the fabled Brooklyn Bridge But there was no marker, no monument Nothing To mark the history of this momentous place. “Only the dead know Brooklyn, ” he wrote. The building was owned by someone, so of course I Couldn't go in, but I wondered if the owner even Knew the significance of this brick and plaster and Wood. All I could do was look on from outside: A tiny window at ground level, not more than a foot of Exposed gla** above the back alley black tar pavement Dry leaves and dust stuck in the cracked and peeling Paint of its frame. The blind, pale and yellowing, was drawn Leaving a cold and lifeless sense of a space No longer occupied. There was no seeing in, and it was a wonder to me How that young visionary writer managed at all To see out. How dark, how damp this tiny room Must have been, and yet Here Somehow was the birthing, light blasting Through that little window To catch the world's eye A novel called, perhaps not without coincidence: “Of Time and the River.”