'The Old Homes of Beaufort'

I may have missed just why this was published today in the Raleigh News & Observer, but it doesn't really matter. Beaufort is one of the great old, small towns in North Carolina, so I'm not gonna pass up a chance to promote it.

According to this, Carol Bessent Hayman is the Poet Laureate of Beaufort and Carteret County. This is her poem, "The Old Homes of Beaufort."

Old houses with high peaked roofs,
balconied porches, banistered stairs and fences
seem alive
as if they are the enduring defenses
of this town with the sea at its door,
the wind in its face
and a past filled with mystery and magic.

They sit quietly confident,
white or blue or gray
in blocks laid out by ghosts.
One can imagine children who played,
lovers who wandered
beneath century-old oaks on neat green lawns.
At night, they wear mantles of clouds and moonlight.
By day, staid and proper,
they take sunlight or rain with equal grace.

Each has a personality,
individual, unique.
The strong lines and gentle curves
of their sturdy posts and tall slender columns
send messages:
We are heritage.
We survive.