Making Minnesota home #phenology

Today, the Yellow Goat's Beard (Tragopogon dubius) has come into bloom. We've been sprinkled on a few times, but not even a real shower has fallen yet. We're noticing that trees that are fully leafed-out appear much more restless, more often, than Winter-bare branches. Unaccustomed as we are to actually chilling out and enjoying a lazy day, we're going to take a crack at that this afternoon since we don't want to do yard work in the rain and aren't really in the mood to do much around the house.

yellow goat'sbeard in bloom

Photo by J. Harrington

We've almost finished reading the prose poems in Thomas R. Smith's Windy Day at Kabekona. We've taken a couple of his classes at The Loft Literary Center and both enjoyed and learned from them. Somehow, we missed his prose poetry writings until recently. As we read the blurbs on the back cover of Windy Day, we discovered another acknowledged master of the prose poem, Nin Andrews. Looks like we may have to get our hands on one or more of her volumes to add to our collection of prose poetry. We note that we've come to particularly associate the prose poem with our adopted state of Minnesota, thanks to its creation by such native or naturalized Minnesotans as Smith, Robert Bly, Louis Jenkins, and Julie Gard.

As we've proceeded with our readings in Creating Minnesota, a History from the Inside Out, we've discovered a similarity we share with its author, Annette Atkins. She's from South Dakota, and finds herself more comfortable and at home in the western, open biome of Minnesota than in the deciduous or boreal woods. We relate our identification with lands near the Atlantic Ocean and the ocean's openness with Minnesota's prairie, but we also have the benefit of having spent time in New England's North Woods in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Perhaps that's why we may actually be more Minnesotan than we realize, according to Atkins. She writes: "It's this passion, this visceral connection to trees and water, that informs Minnesota history, identity, and life. It's the impulse that makes Minnesotans Minnesotans." We admit to a visceral connection to trees and water, although our water has salt in it and our preferred trees tend to grow on mountains or in beach sand, but we fit Atkins' version of Minnesota impulse better than we ever will attain "Minnesota Nice."

A HOMEMADE WORLD

We all live in one, Huxley said.
Look around, and it's here,
individual as a signature.
How have you built your world?

Many people salvage bricks
from their childhood homes.
They nail the old framed
prejudices above the fireplace.

They can't see out their windows
because they've recycled the smoked
glass of fear.  Even their
books keep out light.

If you build with only
the things you've made your own,
a friendliness toward living
warms you like a patchwork quilt.

If you build your world-house
with toxic cast-offs, there's some
poison everywhere you turn.
And if you build your country

with bombs and oil instead of
wheat and schools--you can't help it,
you'll just go on electing
Disaster as your president.

--from The Foot of the Rainbow, Red Dragonfly Press, copyright 2010 Thomas R. Smith
(original appearance:  Pemmican 2010, www.pemmicanpress.com)

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