One of my favorite teacher-bloggers, Margaret Simon, left the most astonishing comment on my blog post yesterday: she found a poem in my slice! Margaret is a wonderful poet, and this piece of praise lifted my spirits all day. As I stepped into my office this morning, wondering what I would write about, I saw Margaret’s beautiful book of poems and writing and drawing prompts (along with photographs and illustrations by other artists), Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape, sitting on the table by the chaise where I write. I opened it and felt inspired by the first very poem. So today, the South Dakota prairie talks to the Louisiana bayou.
I am a vast rolling prairie.
I rise and fall like waves on the ocean.
I echo hawk, eagle, and meadowlark.
I wonder who would describe me as empty.
I am a vast rolling prairie.
I bend as the wind blows.
I touch hoof and feather and claw.
I nurture cottonwood, pronghorn, and prairie dog.
I am a vast rolling prairie.
I remember the bellow of bison.
I root twenty feet into the earth.
I say fortitude lives here.
I hold my secrets close.
the dirigible plum 
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