Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FARMERS, by THEODORE OLSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FARMERS, by                    
First Line: Farmers grow kindred to the soil they till
Last Line: Warming to dim, great dreams of birth and god.
Alternate Author Name(s): Olson, Ted
Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers


Farmers grow kindred to the soil they till,
One with the swart hills where their cornlands reach.
Granite is in their gaze, contained and still,
And the slow pulse of rivers in their speech.
They have their silences like those of loam
In winter, obdurate and indifferent.
They tread the land Antaeus-like, at home,
Fed from the turf, indomitable, content.
I cannot think of farmer folk apart
From the long acres where their slow shares creep.
They must be privy to the earth's dark heart;
Articulate in her councils. Even their sleep
Is like the sleep of frozen, fallow sod,
Warming to dim, great dreams of birth and God.





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