Prairie Day

Sweet grass, swaying with the summer wind and sun -- standing still in a photo.

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In this special feature of our issue today, we are running “Prairie Day,” a poem taken from Michael Finch’s new collection of poetry, Finding Home.

Prairie Day

I longed the day on prairie hill run past
Wind warm in the trees,
Of the sky overhead, high upon
Loose white billows of clouds,
Race under a brilliant, deep, blue, rich sky.

Under me, deep of the black earth
And sweet grass, swaying with the summer wind and sun.
I lie down on soft meadow slow,
As the moment is swiftly passing.
I think high thoughts of life, standing still in this photo
Held tight in my boyish hands and imagination’s mind.

As the sun moves warmly west,
A cool breeze from the woods north blows
Over the drying grass.
Bristling and chilled, the clouds cover fast
The dying of the sun-soaked day.

As my mind reels in the memory of a moment,
The day has passed into a slumber still
Of damp chill and hint of change
From sky-born fronts from the lands far northwest.

As the sun sets over the desert scape,
Rock-hard and earth-parched below,
A naked moon stands over itself,
Mirrored like over a barren land.

I think of that prairie day,
That lone roll of a hill in my Illinois land
From which I ran to escape far-flung wide.
My mind remembers a soft, warm wind,
Sweet earth scent, and billows of clouds
In a wide prairie sky of youth’s eternal hope.
Where have you gone?

A book from a new voice in poetry, Finding Home is a collection about home, nature, love, places in America, and a view of the plight of Christians in the world today. If your heart ever hearkens back to a simpler time and home, Finding Home will touch you in a way that poetry has not before.

Michael Finch is the president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles. A true American patriot and defender of the Christian faith, he has spent his life fighting to preserve America’s freedom and liberties.

Mike has been published widely in a number of journals and is a frequent speaker. This, his first book of poetry, will find its place in recapturing American culture.