Poem: "Prairie Dreams"
Oct. 13th, 2011 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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poetreeOne of my main fields is nature writing. It's the most accessible of my poetry, because everyone is at least somewhat familiar with nature. You can see a lot of this material gathered in my book From Nature's Patient Hands: A Collection of Poetry. About half of those poems were inspired by things in central Illinois, where I live; the rest were inspired by distant places I have visited or studied from afar. For me, nature poetry offers a way to celebrate familiar things and to introduce people to new ideas. Often I take an aspect of nature and connect it with some other part of everyday life. I also mark the seasons in most of my nature poems. If you're new to nature poetry, you might also like my essay "How to Read a Nature Poem."
"Prairie Dreams" originally appeared in From Nature's Patient Hands. I'm sharing it here because I want to have it online. This is a poem that I often show to people as an example when they're flipping through my book. It's short and sweet, speaking about the cycle of seasons in the prairie ecosystem native to my area. I like the rondeau form because it uses both rhymed lines and an unrhymed refrain, which makes it hold together without getting stuffy. It makes a good form for contemplative poems.
Sun and rain make a prairie grow,
Dust and seeds and the winds that blow.
Birds on the wing in high blue skies
Sing of the creek over the rise,
Fallen leaves following the flow.
Spring and summer, so long ago,
Shaped these hills and hollows below,
Driving the glaciers from their prize.
Sun and rain.
Autumn and winter, to and fro,
Weave tapestries of leaves and snow
But even when the cold sleet flies,
The prairie dreams of butterflies,
Sun and rain.
"Prairie Dreams" originally appeared in From Nature's Patient Hands. I'm sharing it here because I want to have it online. This is a poem that I often show to people as an example when they're flipping through my book. It's short and sweet, speaking about the cycle of seasons in the prairie ecosystem native to my area. I like the rondeau form because it uses both rhymed lines and an unrhymed refrain, which makes it hold together without getting stuffy. It makes a good form for contemplative poems.
Prairie Dreams
– a rondeau
– a rondeau
Sun and rain make a prairie grow,
Dust and seeds and the winds that blow.
Birds on the wing in high blue skies
Sing of the creek over the rise,
Fallen leaves following the flow.
Spring and summer, so long ago,
Shaped these hills and hollows below,
Driving the glaciers from their prize.
Sun and rain.
Autumn and winter, to and fro,
Weave tapestries of leaves and snow
But even when the cold sleet flies,
The prairie dreams of butterflies,
Sun and rain.
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Date: 2011-10-14 01:13 am (UTC)You're welcome!
Date: 2011-10-14 02:24 am (UTC)