Robert Mondavi Winery - A Place...I Never Chose Poem by James B. Earley

....Career I thought....was on a path
Southern California life's destiny...
Beaches mountains the whole of it
....Came crashing down around me

Bankrupt abrupt from that bitter cup
....Having drunk its anguished brew
Collapsing all my hopes and dreams
.....The entire world.....I knew

Answering a blind ad...still as sad
.....Once knowing its pedigree
Claim to fame meant not a thing
....Amidst sheer pain...and misery

Finding myself in the Napa Valley
....Where....I had no plans to be
World-renowned no joy I found
...Just another.....place to me

Recalling the first day on the job
.....My memory......crystal clear
Asking Deity the troubling question
"My God what am I doing here"

But in time...It took some years....
One hundred-eighty degrees in fact
I later came to adore and love
...Since then....no looking back
*
*
..................And now....

I find myself at this place
.....I never chose

Yet......could not have planned
A more delightful life
Than...with those

Bewitching years I've known
..........At this place
................I never chose