Editor’s note. This “poem-like substance” was written during the 2000-2001 school year as an in-class demonstration when I was teaching a creative writing class at Springfield College in Illinois (later merged into Benedictine University and subsequently closed). When students complained it wasn’t fair for me to make them write a poem on demand, we agreed: (1) they didn’t have to write great poetry every time, that a “poem-like substance” would do just as well; and (2) I’d write along with them and share my product, however embarrassing, with them. This one turned out better than most, and we included it that year in The Sleepy Weasel, our campus literary magazine.
north of Lewistown
the road dips
and rises
upland geometry
of rolling prairie
glacial
till scoured
tumbled
into ancient stream beds
sunlit bank
bend in the road
day lilies
shout hosanna
orange red petals
brassy
open throated
fanfare
flare
like trumpets
bells
turned to the sun
The Sleepy Weasel, Vol. 6, 2000-2001
You brought to mind an “erratic rock” in the middle of a field in farm land Oregon. My mother always stopped the car and told us about the glaciers scouring the plain.
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