# Family Plowing and other Prairie Poems

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-22 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Duane L. Herrmann, Family Plowing and other Prairie Poems, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Family Plowing and other Prairie Poems
> Duane L. Herrmann
> Meadowlark Books, 2019
> 
> Family Plowing and other Prairie Poems new and used, a collection of ninety-five prairie poems
> gathered from previous collections, and some new. The collection celebrates the prairie and life on
> and under it. Many of the poems were written out on the prairie with sky above, wind and grass,
> some trees and views of miles and miles and miles in all directions. The author’s family has lived
> and farmed on the Kansas prairie since the 60s - the 1860s. The prairie is his heart and home.
> 
> Below is a selection of 9 poems; purchase the entire volume at meadowlark-books.com
> 
> Contents:
> 
> Family Plowing
> Grandfather’s Road
> Spring Lake
> Chicken Creek Road
> Spring Towers
> Night Necklaces
> Pigs in a Blanket
> House on the Edge of a Meadow
> The Wind’s Own
> The Family House
> Magic Evening
> Lost Road
> Tiny Pond
> Plowing Lesson
> Coyote Rules the World
> Kansas Nachtlied, Goethe
> Summer Wetting
> Prairie Hawk
> Witness
> Making Hay
> Grandfather’s Barn
> For Deer Waiting
> Song of the Prairie Night
> Wagon Tale
> On the Horizon
> Builders of Barns
> Unnatural Mark
> Sleeping to the Sound of Rain
> Barn Remains
> Next Five Exits
> Buffalo Surprise
> Absence by Inference
> Garden Effort
> On the Hillside
> Road Through the Trees
> Stone Shell
> The Fullness of Summer
> Tree Dance
> Rolling Seas
> Dawn Light
> Traveling
> Caught in the Air
> Flint Hills Farm
> Spirit of the Well
> Haunting Summons
> Cottonwood
> Moving Water
> Buffalo Spirit
> Country Buried
> Night Secrets
> Rural Conversation
> Transition
> Pasture Gate
> Schoolhouse Picnic
> Sky Vast
> Pond Experiment
> Wind Blown
> Ancient Water
> Rain Dance
> Testing the Tree
> Fence Building
> Challenge of the Bridge
> The Sky
> Time Has Told
> Prairie Breath
> Golden
> Evening Meditation
> Silo Sentinel
> Autumn Messengers
> Traces that Remain
> Night Coming
> Decision to Honor
> October Forever!
> No Mountain Lions
> Autumn Wind Speaks
> Lonely Land
> Seeds
> Autumn Afternoon
> Remaining Witness
> Clearing Cedars
> Winter Wet
> My Father’s Eyes
> Bluebird Winter
> Snow Falling
> Snow Makes Clear
> Winter Rodent Dreams
> Fire in the Snow
> Snow Reveals
> In the Snow
> Fire in Snowlight
> Warning
> The Flower Dreams
> Too Cold
> Waiting for Spring
> Haunting Hope of Spring
> GRANDFATHER'S ROAD
> 
> Invisible to the traveler now,
> two tracks through the grass,
> but the discerning eye
> can see two fence rows on each side.
> 
> Across the prairie and down
> the hill it leads
> over a little cement bridge,
> with iron rails;
> 
> One missing.
> Also missing is the house
> and barn and windmill.
> Not even a line of stones.
> 
> His early life,
> his boyhood home,
> has returned to the prairie
> from whence it came.
> 
> The earth
> reclaimed its own.
> 
> But the road remains
> to show the way
> to the past of my grandfather's life:
> he walked this way to school.
> CHICKEN CREEK ROAD
> 
> No up-scale suburb, this!
> “Chicken Creek Road”
> named because of – what?
> 
> Obviously:
> chickens in the creek.
> At least
> at some memorable moment.
> 
> The possibilities
> are wild:
> chickens everywhere!
> up and down the creek!
> 
> This is:
> local color,
> a homespun name,
> not to be easily forgotten.
> 
> Who could ever forget
> an address on –
> Chicken Creek Road?
> NIGHT NECKLACES
> 
> Glittering strings
> strewn across hillsides.
> Large and small
> flaming jewels
> form lines and loops
> here and there,
> up, down, around.
> At night the sight
> is awesome to behold.
> Darkness hides
> grass from ash
> and contrasts
> smoke towering high
> lit by flames
> illuminating,
> reflecting,
> necklaces
> adorning hillsides
> in prairie spring.
> THE WIND’S OWN
> 
> Wind:
> roaring, howling –
> wild, screaming
> shrieking into every crack –
> shrilly, demonically.
> 
> Wind:
> incessantly calling –
> pleading, pulling, prying;
> never letting up –
> continually, mercilessly.
> 
> Alone –
> on the hill, the woman stood;
> surrounded by the wind
> crying though the grasses –
> pushing the clouds along.
> 
> She tried to see a house,
> or person,
> but no,
> she was alone,
> no other human evidence.
> 
> Alone –
> no one for miles –
> Just grass and hills and wind.
> her mate away to pay the claim
> she joined the wind.
> shrieking, howling, crying…
> she was sister to the wind.
> They ran the hills together:
> companions.
> 
> The wind had claimed its own.
> 
> Up and down, she ran and rolled,
> stumbled,
> unaware –
> and ran again.
> 
> Crying, shrieking…
> she was found
> running with the wind.
> No human here,
> she fought loving arms around her:
> 
> a creature of the wind.
> 
> she has her peace now,
> The wind does not trouble her
> on the Hill of Silence –
> caressed
> by the breeze.
> PLOWING LESSON
> 
> I was fourteen
> just learning to farm –
> my first plowing lesson,
> driving a tractor
> only the summer before.
> Father examined my effort:
> “Plow to the edge of the field
> then raise the plow to turn.”
> So I did
> and swiped the only tree –
> front axel bent:
> tires angled to a V.
> Thoughtful, my father looked
> and swiped again the tree –
> re-bending the axel
> straight!
> Then he left me
> to finish plowing the field!
> WITNESS
> 
> The abandon building
> gray
> weathered wood and warped
> still
> erect, upright and proud
> here
> on the side of the ridge,
> now
> prairie all around - lonely,
> once
> the seat of culture-learning
> pride
> to become “Americans”
> this
> was their school and center
> when
> they knew who they were
> becoming.
> MAKING HAY
> 
> Mornings when the dew had dried
> Granpa mowed the field of hay
> going round and round and round,
> outside to center.
> Early after lunch the boy would rake
> the now dry hay
> once around for Granpa's twice,
> outside to center.
> Fluffed up windrows snaked along
> from sheets of new cut grass
> raking opposite the cutting,
> outside to center.
> Once done, the hay was raked again
> merging two windrows to one,
> drying all sides of the grass,
> outside to center.
> Father ran the baler, especially -
> if the knotter had a temper,
> following the windrow
> outside to center
> SONG OF THE PRAIRIE NIGHT
> 
> Howling, calling,
> yipping joy:
> coyotes all around
> in communion.
> Others too
> join their songs:
> owls in speech,
> sleepy birds,
> while more
> rustle grass
> as they pass.
> Wind stirs trees –
> bending branches
> whispering secrets
> of the leaves.
> Insect chorus
> whirrs and chirps
> while deer
> sleep soundly
> hidden safe
> in grass and brush.
> Clouds slip silent
> in and out
> while the moon
> smiles over all
> and stars
> move silent by.
> BUFFALO SURPRISE
> 
> On a lonely country road,
> gravel,
> winding through hills,
> along the creeks;
> two friends,
> a drive of relaxation:
> 
> Where does this road go?
> What will we see?
> 
> Around a curve
> suddenly
> in the trees -
> a herd of buffalo
> standing
> but too still to be true:
> silhouettes with details
> accurately painted,
> quickly passed –
> 
> wishing they were real.
>
> — *Family Plowing and other Prairie Poems (Used by permission of the curator)*