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Friday, December 14, 2012

Real Toads: a prairie poem for Hannah

Over at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, we've been asked by Hannah to consider the prairie, the grasslands, the steppes: those wide, mostly flat lands in the centers of most continents.
Along with help from my prairie dog, Lindy, I'd like to bring you an illustrated poem about the prairie where I now live.
First, my prairie dog, in case you haven't met her before.


 
Lindy Davies-Schear

All the above landscapes are part of "the lone prair-ee"
WHERE COYOTES HOWL, yes indeed, but
also WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY


the prairie

is a poem
in and
of itself
with hawks
on poles
and cattle
in the fields


feet and fire in the sky
and canola fields streak stripes
 across the landscape









cactus and
flowers
and
cactus flowers
compete with
rocks for
beauty on
the ground



prairie dogs
'n' gophers
rabbits,
horses,
deer




singing birds
and
swimming birds
and clouds
and deep
blue skies



camouflaged
 critters
insects
and snakes
rivers
and ponds
and hoodoos

are some
of the things it takes...

to make a prairie



Photos © Kay Davies and Richard Schear


10 comments:

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Oh how lovely. I smiled to see adorable Lindy with the prairie grasses framing her.........love all the photos..........I crossed the prairies only twice, back and forth, by train. I remember it being FLAT. The occasional railroad hut, or barn and silo..........but I know how prairie folk love their wide blue sky. A friend who moved here from Alberta, kept wanting to push all the cluttery forests and mountains out of the way. She missed the sky!

Kay said...

Love this poem, Kay. Very beautiful!

LLM Calling said...

wow, all those photos and the words are just exquisite together. this could be a great advert for the prairie tourist board :)

Kerry O'Connor said...

Thank you for sharing all this beautiful images. Your love of the landscape shines through every word.

Grace said...

I live and work in the city Kay so the pictures are a treat ~ How I wish I can retreat to the prairie land once in a while ~

Lindy is so adorable in the pictures too~

Unknown said...

Your photos could be an essay in and of themselves, Kay. So lovely. thank you for sharing them with us.

Margaret said...

Mesmerized by the beauty in this post... the words, the images. Read it three times!

Helen said...

I would enjoy walking through this splendor with you ... and Lindy!!

Susan said...

You live in this beauty? And you have a picture of a red-winged blackbird--one of the birds who evokes my youth--!! I love how you captured the swans in love and the rock steps in the steppes. You are right that the prairie is a poem, and it is probably a dance for those who get to inhabit as well.

Ella said...

Beautiful Kay! I love you sharing Lindy with us! I love that you said
"a prairie is a poem"-so true! This was beautiful in thought and photos!
(((hugs)))