Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, my West African speech gave way to my Midwestern speech. I am going home...to my ancestral home, the place of my father awaits, heart beating as promised, and the place of our foremothers and forefathers. This December homecoming pilgrimage to Ghana has been a thorough-going success and given me exactly what I needed at this time of the year and in my life. I salute my West African heart home and the people of heart that land contains...and welcome its new president, installed yesterday, January 7th.

Many things occurred getting on the flight at Accra, at the Amsterdam airport, on that aforesaid flight over the Atlantic, and in the Memphis, Tennessee airport. Perhaps they can be spoken of later. No space of the journey is left vacant.

Upon setting foot inside my apartment and the balance beam scales therein, I discover that I have been on the HAPPINESS DIET: GO TO GHANA AND LOSE WEIGHT. Can't you just see the cover page headlines flogging that article in the women's self-help magazines in America? 10 pounds to be exact. I am now at a weight lower than before my move to St. Louis, a year-and-a-half ago. I have now lost the 10 pounds that I gained during the Winter of My Seclusion...and a few more besides. This is good. May the trend continue.

I'm pretty fried--yes, fried--I think that's a combo of tired and frazzled--and going to bed now...after a theoretical 24 hours of travel, but more because of the time changes. I'll be laying low over the next few days as I catch up on my writing and my biological body.

Because I'll only be staying in two locations, I'll be taking a few more things with me, including my laptop. I hope to pick up a mobile phone once I'm there for calls within Ghana. I have SKYPE on my computer, so if I can get wireless access, that would open up a new option as well to keep in touch with friends and family in America. We'll see.

I'm mostly there to visit old friends I worked with 30 years ago and make some new friends. I'll being staying first in Busua Beach at African Rainbow Resort. Go to their website to see where I'll be staying and some of the wonderful side trips from there. I'll mostly be writing and swimming and relaxing. I'll turn 60 on December 29th and feel better about this birthday and my life as a whole than I have in quite a while. That's really my best birthday present...this greater feeling of being well within my skin.

From there I'll move back to Accra, the Capitol city, where my old friends live. I'll be staying independently and connecting with them as their schedule allows.

For those of you whom GHANA is a new place, here are a few coordinates. It's in West Africa, near the equator, and on the Greewich meridian. It is bounded in the NW by Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), on the eat by Togo, on the south by the Atlantic ocean, and the West by La Cote D'Ivoire (known as the Ivory Coast).

Ghana's total area is 238,537 sq. km (92,100 sq. miles). Other large cities beside Accra are Tamale, Seckondi-Takoradi, and Kumasi. The terrain is composed of plains and scrubland, rain forest, a tropical climate...a population of 17.7 million as estimated in 1997.

There are 10 regions namely the Northern, Upper West, Upper East, Volta, Ashanti, Western, Brong-ahafo, and Greater Accrra.

Therefore, whether you are new to our community here or whether you are a long-time reader, I invite you to browse the archives. They are rich and full. And the top bar contains information about my poetry book "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary."

We'll see you, reliably back in this space in after January 10th. Until then, Darlings, it'll be catch as catch can.