THINGS TO BELIEVE IN
trees, in general; oaks, especially;
burr oaks that survive fire, in particular;
and the generosity of apples
seeds, all of them: carrots like
dust,
winged maple, doubled beet, peach kernel;
the inevitability of change
frogsong in spring; cattle
lowing on the farm across the hill;
the melodies of sad old songs
comfort of savory soup;
sweet iced fruit; the aroma of yeast;
a friend’s voice; hard work
seasons; bedrock; lilacs;
moonshadows under the ash grove;
something breaking through
—Patricia Monaghan
From "Voices of the American Land":
Patricia Monaghan is the author of
four books of poetry, most recently Homefront, on the impact of war on families, and many works of nonfiction including The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog: The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit. Among her literary awards have been a Pushcart Prize and the Phoenix Award for environmental poetry.
In Grace of Ancient Land award winning
poet, playwright and essayist Patricia Monaghan writes of and from the
Driftless area of Southeastern Wisconsin. The poems reveal the unique
typography of stream-cut valleys and limestone-crowned hills that rolls
out in a 600 mile swath of forest, farm and field. Patricia Monaghan
opens to us the heart of this virtually unknown magical geography.
Across wilding orchards, to a blaze of "prairie grasses/pink and scarlet in the dying sun"
the poet’s attention is precise, awed, unsentimental.
Within these
arcs Patricia watches light fall across the meadow pearling the hissing
woodlands:
"the dust-blue grapes ripe among the sunset plums
was grace itself . . .
the embrace of the unsought present"
THINGS TO BELIEVE IN
trees, in general; oaks, especially;
burr oaks that survive fire, in particular;
and the generosity of apples
seeds, all of them: carrots like dust,
winged maple, doubled beet, peach kernel;
the inevitability of change
frogsong in spring; cattle
lowing on the farm across the hill;
the melodies of sad old songs
comfort of savory soup;
sweet iced fruit; the aroma of yeast;
a friend’s voice; hard work
seasons; bedrock; lilacs;
moonshadows under the ash grove;
something breaking through
—Patricia Monaghan
From "Voices of the American Land":
Patricia Monaghan is the author of
four books of poetry, most recently Homefront, on the impact of war on families, and many works of nonfiction including The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog: The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit. Among her literary awards have been a Pushcart Prize and the Phoenix Award for environmental poetry.
In Grace of Ancient Land award winning
poet, playwright and essayist Patricia Monaghan writes of and from the
Driftless area of Southeastern Wisconsin. The poems reveal the unique
typography of stream-cut valleys and limestone-crowned hills that rolls
out in a 600 mile swath of forest, farm and field. Patricia Monaghan
opens to us the heart of this virtually unknown magical geography.
Across wilding orchards, to a blaze of "prairie grasses/pink and scarlet in the dying sun"
the poet’s attention is precise, awed, unsentimental.
Within these
arcs Patricia watches light fall across the meadow pearling the hissing
woodlands:
"the dust-blue grapes ripe among the sunset plumswas grace itself . . .the embrace of the unsought present"
