Plowed Under

Have you ever had one of those projects that just took every minute you had to give it? I've just come out the other side of one, and ya' know, now that I'm done, I'm done -- fully spent, depleted, exhausted.

Sure, there's a sense of accomplishment, but I think I'm going to need a bit more time between me and the project before I can really enjoy that. Right now, I feel more like the horse in the following poem, with nothing left to give.

American Life in Poetry: Column 154

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Here, poet Yusef Komunyakaa, who teaches at New York University, shows us a fine portrait of the hard life of a worker--in this case, a horse--and, through metaphor, the terrible, clumsy beauty of his final moments.

Yellowjackets

When the plowblade struck
An old stump hiding under
The soil like a beggar's
Rotten tooth, they swarmed up
& Mister Jackson left the plow
Wedged like a whaler's harpoon.
The horse was midnight
Against dusk, tethered to somebody's
Pocketwatch. He shivered, but not
The way women shook their heads
Before mirrors at the five
& dime--a deeper connection
To the low field's evening star.
He stood there, in tracechains,
Lathered in froth, just
Stopped by a great, goofy
Calmness. He whinnied
Once, & then the whole
Beautiful, blue-black sky
Fell on his back.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa, reprinted from "Pleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999," Wesleyan Univ. Press, 2001, by permission. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Of course, I do not plan on keeling over like Mr. Jackson's plow horse, but a big flop on my bed sounds nice, a shuddering precursor to a blessedly long night's sleep. What better way to face tomorrow--and tomorrow's projects--refreshed?

If your project calls for more prints like the one reproduced above, see USDA's Historical Photos collection. And for a broader selection of agriculturally related photos, dip into the many great photo resources NAL has pulled together.

Or if you're drawn more to poetry than to pictures, you might be surprised to learn that NAL actually carries some works of poetry. It's not a large collection, but an interesting one. Check with your local library for help finding those that strike your fancy.

Posted by Mary Ann Leonard

Added to Poetry on March 25, 2008 EST | Permalink

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Lively discussions and different opinions are encouraged within the bounds of respectful civil discourse. Questionable language, personal attacks, off-topic comments, and gratuitous links will either be edited or deleted. Comments are moderated and will not appear on InfoFarm until they have been approved.

MA, What a spendid treat you've shared with all here on the InfoFarm - a sweet front porch treat!. The country - life (work) poem (beautiful!) w/ the link to extremely rich, interesting range of poetic materials from NAL was "off the hook"! BRAVO-Thanks! And, BRAVO-Thanks!, too for the NAL work completed and referenced in your poetic intro to "YellowJackets". That gets my 115% thanks and congratulations! I hope & expect all the NAL community (and that's a big bunch- "F2 E2", ya know!) will be blessed by these collective efforts toward the work just cooked-up. A fine dessert! I'm real anxious for the dish to "cool before serving", ya know! Thanks, again MA! I do hope you're gaining extra strength by, for, from these collective, collected efforts, w/rest, too :)! - Karl S

Submitted by: Karl S on April 6, 2008 10:26 AM

Submitted by: Luisa S. on April 13, 2008 06:36 PM

The Flower Itself Entered Our World

It's Friday, and in the idiosyncratic logic of a blogger, I've decided we needed a bit of culture here at InfoFarm.

It's also fall, which means that the culture I've chosen -- Connie Wanek's poem "Amaryllis" -- appropriately aligns with the season. All the gardening sites out there will tell you that we've stumbled into that bulb's planting season. And the local garden shops have them in stock, since they've become popular as winter blooms.

So, if you'd like your own amaryllis, get to work this weekend, and you should have something in 7 to 10 weeks. Until then (or for those lacking the proverbial green thumb), enjoy this vivid lyrical version, courtesy of poet Connie Wanek, and Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry site:

American Life in Poetry: Column 084

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Many of this column's readers have watched an amaryllis emerge from its hard bulb to flower. To me they seem unworldly, perhaps a little dangerous, like a wild bird you don't want to get too close to. Here Connie Wanek of Duluth, Minnesota, takes a close and playful look at an amaryllis that looks right back at her.

Amaryllis

A flower needs to be this size
to conceal the winter window,
and this color, the red
of a Fiat with the top down,
to impress us, dull as we've grown.

Months ago the gigantic onion of a bulb
half above the soil
stuck out its green tongue
and slowly, day by day,
the flower itself entered our world,

closed, like hands that captured a moth,
then open, as eyes open,
and the amaryllis, seeing us,
was somehow undiscouraged.
It stands before us now

as we eat our soup;
you pour a little of your drinking water
into its saucer, and a few crumbs
of fragrant earth fall
onto the tabletop.

Reprinted from "Bonfire," New Rivers Press, 1997, by permission of the author. Copyright © 1997 by Connie Wanek. Her most recent book is "Hartley Field," from Holy Cow! Press, 2002. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.

Finally, for more prints like the one reproduced above, see the collection of images from Curtis's Botanical Magazine presented by the Library's Special Collections.

Posted by Mary Ann Leonard

Added to Plants and Crops and Poetry on November 02, 2007 EST | Permalink

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Lively discussions and different opinions are encouraged within the bounds of respectful civil discourse. Questionable language, personal attacks, off-topic comments, and gratuitous links will either be edited or deleted. Comments are moderated and will not appear on InfoFarm until they have been approved.

What a coincidence! As chance would have it, one of this year's holiday cards from Special Collections features the Christmas Amaryllis in "the red of a Fiat," as the poem says. The card reproduces Barbara Cotton's illustration of Amaryllis regina vittata (engraving by William Say), plate 15 of Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Volume V (London, 1824). Learn more about the Christmas Amaryllis or get more details about all of our potential holiday gifts and stocking stuffers on our Web site. As always, a portion of all sales goes to protecting and preserving the historic treasures housed at your National Agricultural Library.

Submitted by: NAL's Special Collections on November 20, 2007 09:05 AM