Storytime

I'm always impressed when writers can put together a poem, short story, or even a novel set in the place they live. I read poems set in inner suburbs, tramping grounds of the poet who lives just around the corner. Short stories set in streets that are seeped in reality, down to the pigeons on the statue of some long forgotten founder that stares morosely to the west. I've written about where I grew up as a child, but where I live now? Perhaps I need to live in the gritty inner suburbs? The rambling countryside where the view is of cows and haystacks? Or in a small coastal town where life revolves around the weather? Perhaps I don't feel at 'home' where I live? I have attempted poems set in my suburb. But I find it so hard to get the right emotional contact. I don't want it to sound cool or mawkish, remote or seeped in purple prose. And don't get me wrong, I love where I live. It's a suburb with one general store cum post office, tennis court...