“I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.”

“That is because you have no brains,” answered the girl. “No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.” 

The Scarecrow sighed.

“Of course I cannot understand it,” he said. “If your heads were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains.” ― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Hello Dear Poets-

Welcome to Open Link Night here at dVerse where you are invited to link up one poem of your choosing to share with us. The bar is open, and I have a special surprise- free lollipops for all! We also have a lovely lollipop cocktail, which is champagne and cherry juice garnished with- you guessed it- a lollipop! And of course, we have all the regular fare.

The human brain is so mysterious and awe inspiring. When I was contemplating what to write today for OLN, I started thinking about the fact that we are getting a new roof today. I never thought I would be excited about a new roof, but I am! We have had some hellacious storms here in Arizona, and suffered damage to our roof. The night it happened, I am sure a tornado was very near. The next morning we surveyed the damage and had an adjuster from a roofing company come out to look. The good news is our homeowner’s insurance will cover the replacement. And just yesterday, we realized the big lawn whirligig that Pete gave me one Christmas is missing from my garden, so I started imagining it being pulled up into the sky, much like Dorothy’s house. My thoughts about our roof lead me to the yellow brick road and OZ, and hence this post was born.

On August 25, 1939, The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opens in theaters around the United States.
Based on the 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the film starred Judy Garland as the young Kansas farm girl Dorothy, who, after being knocked unconscious in a tornado, dreams about following a yellow brick road, alongside her dog Toto, to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz. Along the way, Dorothy encounters a cast of characters, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Wicked Witch of the West. Though the scenes in Kansas were shot in traditional black and white, Oz appears in vivid Technicolor, a relatively new film process at the time. Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category, The Wizard of Oz lost to the Civil War-era epic Gone With the Wind. The Wizard of Oz won a Best Song Oscar for “Over the Rainbow,” which became one of Garland’s signature hits. Garland won a special award at that year’s Oscar ceremony, for Best Juvenile Performer.

Filmed at MGM Studios in Culver City, California, The Wizard of Oz was a modest box-office success when it was first released, but its popularity continued to grow after it was televised for the first time in 1956. An estimated 45 million people watched that inaugural broadcast, and since then The Wizard of Oz has aired on TV countless times. Today, some of the film’s famous lines, including “There’s no place like home” and “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” are well-known to several generations of moviegoers.

Source: History.com

So, are you ready to take a walk down the yellow brick road with me and read some wonderful poems?

Those of you new to dVerse, here’s how to participate:
•Post any poem of your choosing on your blog or website.
•Click on Mr. Linky below to add your name and enter the direct URL to your poem
•On your blog, please provide a link back to dVerse. This enables others to enjoy our prompts, increases our readership and thus increases the responses to everyone’s poems.
•If you promote your poem on social media, use the tag #dverse poets
•Please do read some of the other responses to the prompt and add a short comment or reaction. Everyone likes to be appreciated! The prompt is open and linkable for several days so do stop by another day and read a few of the latecomers too.
•Have fun!