{"product_id":"the-long-way-home-poetry-of-love-loss-and-return-9798950061226","title":"The Long Way Home: Poetry of Love, Loss, and Return","description":"The Long Way Home: Poetry of Love, Loss, and Return\u003cp\u003eSome journeys begin with a destination. Others begin simply with the need to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Long Way Home\u003c\/em\u003e, poet John David Smith traces the quiet distances between restlessness and belonging, freedom and responsibility, departure and return. Through roads, wind, silence, memory, absence, and the persistent presence of love, these poems follow a wanderer who believes distance will loosen what binds him, only to discover that some things travel with us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcross five poetic movements-\u003cem\u003eThe Unwritten Path, The Space Between Us, The Pull of Home, The Way Turns Softly, \u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eHome, Where Love Still Stands\u003c\/em\u003e-the collection follows an emotional journey from the first desire to escape toward a deeper understanding of what it means to belong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this is not simply a book about leaving and finding the way back.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is about what leaving reveals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat absence costs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat remains when distance fails to erase what matters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat it means to recognize that the person left behind continued living while the traveler was finding his way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd what happens after the return, when love becomes more than welcome and belonging begins to ask for presence, responsibility, honesty, and the courage to stay.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTender without becoming sentimental and reflective without offering easy answers, \u003cem\u003eThe Long Way Home\u003c\/em\u003e gives language to those seasons when movement feels necessary, stillness feels unfamiliar, and the heart is learning the difference between being held down and being held.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe collection concludes with \u003cstrong\u003eThe Road Within: A Reader's Reflection Guide\u003c\/strong\u003e, created for personal reflection, book clubs, and small groups. Through guided questions, conversation prompts, and reflective practices, readers are invited to explore their own experiences of leaving, longing, accountability, return, belonging, and the work of remaining.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor anyone who has wandered in search of freedom, carried someone across impossible distances, questioned what home means, or returned changed to a place that somehow still knew their name, these poems offer no map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnly witness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd perhaps a light left burning beyond the fields.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John D. Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribe \u0026amp; Canvas Publishing LLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/29\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 148\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.7lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.38d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798950061226","brand":"Scribe \u0026 Canvas Publishing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48405937127561,"sku":"9798950061226","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_b6542450-0319-4864-804a-41fa5a8b23bf.jpg?v=1790059762","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-long-way-home-poetry-of-love-loss-and-return-9798950061226","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}