I plow the paper with a pen
engaged as the family has been
in cultivation: sowing and reaping.
I plow the paper with a pen,
in a solitary field -
it always has been.
My father was a farmer,
his father, and his before him;
we are plowmen in our rows.
I plow the paper with a pen -
rows of words across the space
in neat and even lines.
Though plowing is the family business,
my "machineries" now differ
for a different kind of crop.
But the plowing is the same:
long straight lines
across unmarked fields.
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Author:
dlherrmann (
Offline) - Published: October 15th, 2020 00:34
- Comment from author about the poem: Not being a farmer, and not wanting to be, as my family had been for generations (maybe forever), I felt I had betrayed my heritage - until I noticed the similarity of a blank piece of paper and an unplowed field. The plowing and the writing are the same!\r\n\r\nNote: The word \\\"machineries\\\" is a term used by my grandfather to refer to all farm equipment too large to carry by hand - any kind of machinery. If it could be carried by hand it was a tool.\r\n \r\nThis is my most published, anthologized poem. And, the one I am most proud of.\r\n
- Category: Family
- Views: 24
Offline)
Comments5
Wonderful comparison dl, that blank page can give us all our wonderful words to 'plough' onto it.
Andy
very much like the Seamus Heaney poem 'Digging':
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging
wonderful write
Good one.... we've all been raised with the romance of a farmer's life but dig a little and it must be full of terrible anxiety and pain..... glad you are happy in your choice........
It's not the unreliable income, no steady paycheck, or having to pay for and repair everything you work with, or the constant physical labor - I didn't like working in the noise, oil/grease and breathing dust. I wanted to create stories.
A very readable analogy piece. But your heritage made a financial living from the land, you would find it near impossible to feed yourself from poetry income. There are not a lot of poets or authors who can solely rely upon the writing for a reasonable livable income - though some are indeed millionaires.
My family scrapped by barely surviving. We lived in a dump and drove junk. I and my wife worked various jobs to support our family and I wrote very little, but some. Now, I'm retired and write.
Ah, well that puts a completely different context in place then. You write very well and i look forward to reading more from you.
Thank you. More will become apparent.
Brian here ~ Good Evning Friend welcome to MPS it is a proactive site which operates by reading & commenting on each others Poetry. Please visit our SITE ~ Thanks. We love your simile between *Ploughing a furrow on the Land* and *Ploughing lines of Prose or Poetry on Paper* The former is hard Physical Work & the latter hard Mentally ! When we write we drop seeds of Truth onto the Lines (furrows) which will bear fruit as people read - mark - learn & inwardly digest it - Food for the Brain ! In your excelent First Poem - of well balanced triplets - Yiou have delivered a good *crop* which has made us think about the purpose & value of our own wraiting ~ More Poems Please ~ AMEN
Blessings & Peace to You & Yours
Love Angela & Brian ! !
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