Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BEYOND THE RED RIVER, by THOMAS MCGRATH Poet's Biography First Line: The birds have flown their summer skies to the south Last Line: Where the prairie is starting to shake in the surf of the winter dark Subject(s): Prairies; Rivers; Plains | ||||||||
The birds have flown their summer skies to the south, And the flower-money is drying in the banks of bent grass Which the bumble bee has abandoned. We wait for a winter lion, Body of ice-crystals and sombrero of dead leaves. A month ago, from the salt engines of the sea, A machinery of early storms rolled toward the holiday houses Where summer still dozed in the pool-side chairs, sipping An aging whiskey of distances and departures. Now the long freight of autumn goes smoking out of the land. My possibles are all packed up, but still I do not leave. I am happy enough here, where Dakota drifts wild in the universe, Where the prairie is starting to shake in the surf of the winter dark. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LEFT-HANDED POEM by JAMES GALVIN NO COMPLAINTS; FOR ROBERT GRENIER by ANSELM HOLLO POINT OF ROCKS, TEXAS by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE PRAIRIE HOUSES by BARBARA GUEST AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE PRAIRIES by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT TO MAKE A PRAIRIE by EMILY DICKINSON THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING by WALT WHITMAN SYMPHONY OF THE SOIL by EVA K. ANGLESBURG ODE FOR THE AMERICAN DEAD IN ASIA by THOMAS MCGRATH |
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