Prairie Voices

 

Out here on the lonely plains,

smoothed hills roll

along the horizon.

The prairie wind

sings a plaintive song

through miles of fence lines.

Voices from the past;

homesteaders and ranchers,

can be heard

in the rusting blades

of these remnant

windmills. 

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Plains, Kansas

 

Unveiled

 for Barb Brege

She was a teacher

seeking to reveal the gifts

her young students

were still unaware of.

A classroom of faces,

their eyes bright with sparkle,

their dreams waiting 

to be unmasked.

Too young to see

what she saw;

their hidden gifts

waiting to be unveiled

in the invisible future.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Old Schoolhouse (1896) Marion County - Kansas

 

This is Dementia

In loving memory of Lillian Havenga (October 22, 1922 ~ September 2, 2021)

They can't remember where they've been,
a dark road ahead with an uncertain end. 

Now surrounded by shadows of doubt.

Is happiness dimmed by time,
or simply forgotten in the fog of forgetting?

Feeling like a fallen fruit, 
wanting only respect and acceptance.

They have become abandoned buildings;
former great designs now become mysteries.

Are regrets surrendered,
or abandoned?


Preferring comfortable habits,
fearing new experiences.

They are hidden behind the trees,
stuck inside the shadows. 


Trying to accept this new stage of life
with grace and dignity.

Struggling to accept their
dependence on others. 

Waiting at the gate,
but not knowing what for.

Now carrying new burdens
with the uncertainty of an orphan.

Brief fragments of understanding,
like razor-thin ice, are shattered
as they are formed.

Becoming a stranger to yourself. 

The memory becomes shallower,
like ripples upon the shore. 

Drifting in the eddy
between the former self
and the darkness ahead. 

Searching the darkness
with diminishing options,
seeking sameness for easier decisions.

Their memories grow old,
packed with stories often-told;

gathered into lumps of lint

deep in their warm pockets.

Now becoming transparent
inside their lonely days,
time refuses to move.

Thoughts are all tangled,

twisted into turmoil.

Silent as an old photograph
trying to hold on to yesterday.

Their parade of days
diminishing in the distance.

Their thoughts have gone astray.
There is nothing more to say.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Ada, Michigan

2. Sierra Vista, Arizona

3. Kent County - Michigan

4. Fountain, Colorado

5. Buena Vista, Colorado

6. Loveland, Colorado

7. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

8. Pickerel Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan

9. Home Woods - wetland - Kent County, Michigan

10. Lincoln Beach, Oregon

11. Pickerel Lake - Kent County - Michigan

12. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

13. Southern California

14. Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

15. Olympic National Park - Washington

16. 1896 Schoolhouse - Elkhart, Kansas

17. Centennial, Wyoming

18. Lowell, Michigan

Held

 

The immensity of the land

rolled toward the horizon in waves.

The farmers and ranchers

were held by the land

that provided for them.

They worked the land;

planted, cultivated, harvested.

Held fast to the land

as they watched the horizon.

And in their eyes,

and in their hearts,

they held a love of the land

that was incomprehensible

to those passing by

on the highways.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Brockton, Montana

2. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. Longmont, Colorado

4. & 5. Wilburton, Kansas

During Daylight

Driving through the dark,
passing through these prairies,
I try to perceive the vastness;
imagine what I'm missing
beyond this tunnel of headlights.

During the daylight,
paralleling the Platte River
through Nebraska,
broad, bold cottonwoods
tower above the flat land.

During the daylight,
Meadowlarks 
perch on posts;
cast their liquid songs
into the dome of sky.

During the daylight,
crops of corn
germinate, generate
work and income
for men in tractors.

During the daylight,
rusted blades of
deserted windmills
are fixed in position,
stranded in time.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Hershey, Nebraska

2. Hesperus, Colorado

3. Harmon, Illinois

4.  Hugoton, Kansas

Horizon

On these vast and windy plains,
the immense sky meets the long land,
enhancing the circling horizon,
the curvature of the earth. 

Old windmills still turning,

still churning water 

for the trough.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. Arapahoe, Colorado

2. Lincoln County, Montana

kneeling

out here on the range

this cowboy knows when to kneel

and show his respect

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Sharon Springs, Kansas

Long Horizon

Some of the young boys in this old school
didn't get to finish their education.

Had to leave early to help on the farm;
to groom, plant, irrigate and harvest
these long, flat fields in Kansas;
these long acres of bountiful wheat.

With dedication, grit and loyalty,
they persevered on the prairie,
fulfilling their obligations
to family survival.

Maybe returned to class for the winter.
Perhaps paid the price for their sacrifice.

You can still find them today, standing out in their fields,
looking back at the long horizon of yesterday.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:  1896 Schoolhouse ~ District 84 ~ Marion County, Kansas  

Return from the West

After returning
from the endless skies,
encircled by long horizons,
and driving the visible miles
on the plains of Kansas;

After viewing Colorado's
bouldered streams
and magnificent mountains
growing with tall spruces
and spreading Ponderosa Pines;

I am surrounded, again,
by this wall of green;
a thick, humid canopy
of Red Oaks and Black Oaks,
this density of summer leaves.

The far out
crowns of trees
are swaying in the wind,
brushing the sky
back and forth.

But down here
on the backyard deck,
only a breath of breeze gets through.
Enough to turn the page
of the book I'm reading,

and suggest an idea
for a new poem.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Buena Vista, Colorado 

2. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

3. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan 

Manna

A small, soft wind
is shifting and swaying
the ripening wheat,
bronzing in warm
summer sun.

One small kernel
planted in fertile,
warm soil
produces
thirty to fifty
seeds per head;
eventually milled
to give us
our daily bread.

Nourished
by the earth,
how many
stalks of wheat
grow in one acre?
With precious sun
and vital rain
from our maker.

How many kernels
can this
Michigan farmer yield
from his small field?

How many bushels
are harvested by ranchers
in Kansas, the Dakotas,
Oklahoma, Manitoba,
and Montana?

Thank our God
for wheat.
Our manna.

Photo Locations:

Kent County,  Michigan (Michigan)