Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2011 When I Get Home Rachael Button Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Recommended Citation Button, Rachael, "When I Get Home" (2011). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 12147. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/12147 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. When I get home by Rachael Button A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS Major: Creative Writing and Environment Program of Study Committee: Dean Bakopoulos Steve Pett Linda Shenk April Eisman Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2011 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: Looking at Dinosaurs 2 A Brief Natural History 10 Crossings 15 Conservation 21 Unsent 28 PART II: Occasions for Writing 31 Why I Run 45 The Birwood Wall 53 Part III: When I Get Home 69 I. The Traveling Disease 69 II. The Art of Memory 73 III. Smoke 79 IV. Loss 96 V. How to Get Home 108 1 Part I: To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. ~Simone Weil Why have I always been glad to leave? ~J.