Mark, the richness and the beauty and the peace of this poem and all of its
evocative places that move in a very firm line offer a bounty. Thank you for
bringing it forward.
Sheila
On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> A poem that I loved when I was twelve or thirteen just came back to me for
> reasons of its own, maybe the State of the Union speech--the State of
> Limited Hopes--had something to do with it.
>
> The Flower-Fed Buffaloes
>
> The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
> In the days of long ago,
> Ranged where the locomotives sing
> And the prairie flowers lie low:
> The tossing, blooming, perfumed grass
> Is swept away by wheat,
> Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by
> In the spring that still is sweet.
> But the flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
> Left us long ago,
> They gore no more, they bellow no more:--
> With the Blackfeet lying low,
> With the Pawnee lying low.
>
> An American version of the pastoral--huge herds of ruminants devouring
> flowers contrasted to the orderly patterns of civic life. If you want to get
> really sad read the Parkman's introductions to successive printings of The
> Oregon Trail (and read the book itself if you haven't).
>
> From almost the beginning Americans have imagined its history as a story of
> loss, even as most of us have benefited from the changes.
>
>
> Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University of
> California Press).
> http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>
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