In this concrete poem, Holt explores a key concept that she would return to throughout her career: the intersection between language and place. In Hometown, names of towns in New Jersey are typewritten on a letter sized piece of paper, with their location on the page mirroring their physical location. Here Holt is testing the limitations and boundaries of a map by distilling the form down to its most basic elements.

Sun, moon, water, sky, earth, star; these are the words that shape the circular component of Holt’s concrete poem. The poem alludes to the cosmos as it is contained by the various frames and reflections of the earth below, from the human eye, to a pool of water, to the lens of a camera. Human perception of the cosmos and its earthly accomplices are the driving force behind the larger part of Holt’s oeuvre. In this early work, Holt manages to fit her most influential concepts within the confines of a circle.