Discovering Kansas
Some well-meaning friends and associates advised me against coming to "plain" Kansas. Since my arrival, I have been explaining the place. Finally, I wrote a poem for them, and for all of us.
WIDE COUNTRY
Wide country that stretches my eyes to the domain of memory,
Where landscape of imagination is watered by contemplation.
You salute my body with hefty winds,
You assault me with crowds of wind,
That wrestle my path as I jog by the lakes of Rock Road.
Wide country that washes eyes with waves of acclimatization.
Rain, hail, sun and all that fight for space and wrestle irritation.
You caress my body with waves,
That soar to abode of memory.
Wide coutnry, you are the one that defies poetic imagination.
My dears, you need to see the place,
To imagine its essence, and drink the cup of wide country,
Kansas, wide part of the body of Mother Earth that is soothed by her breath.