Family Plowing    

dlherrmann

 

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.

  • Author: dlherrmann (Offline 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
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Comments5

  • Goldfinch60

    Wonderful comparison dl, that blank page can give us all our wonderful words to 'plough' onto it.

    Andy

  • L. B. Mek

    very much like the Seamus Heaney poem 'Digging':
    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging
    wonderful write

  • Lorna

    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........

    • dlherrmann

      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.

    • dusk arising

      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.

      • dlherrmann

        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.

        • dusk arising

          Ah, well that puts a completely different context in place then. You write very well and i look forward to reading more from you.

        • 1 more comment

        • ANGELA & BRIAN

          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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