plains — 2012 — The 21st Century Matriarch

The Plains

Indians never rode on wheels although they lived

in round tents set in circles, made mounds

(and danced around them) for those whose throats

had shut, in dust, mouths filled at last.

-- Pamela Alexander in Navigable Waterways (Yale Series of Younger Poets No 20)

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Today’s quote, like yesterdays, is snippet from a poem. This one was published in the 1980s. What is the first thing you think about as you read these lines? And the second thought?

My first was about the circle shape. It is the universal round for motion (wheels) and dwellings (tents, hogans, yurts). How different from our homes today full of rectangular shapes!

The second thought was about starvation…the very last phrase ‘mouths filled at last.’ Would this have been the time of year it would have most likely occurred on the plains?

Note: This books is also available online here.

There is a hint of desert in the yellow plains, a measure of openness and the suggestions of surprises. - The Kookaburras' Song: Exploring Animal Behavior in Australia, 1st Edition

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This quote is from a book about Australia but it could just as easily be about ‘yellow plains’ anywhere in the world.

I am familiar with the yellow plains in North America. The ones that I think of first are the seemingly endless fields of ripe wheat. The wind ripples through the grain creating waves and eddies that are visible nearby but further away the eye smoothes the vision. The vastness of the wheat field is the same as the fastness of the blue sky above. Both appear infinite. And so it is that anything that breaks the monotony of the field or the sky will be a surprise - a hawk…a row of telephone poles…a combine beginning the harvest. You notice these things more when the background is just the wheat and the sky.

The other area is the high plains of the Texas Panhandle where scrubby grass grows. It is green when the rains come but turns to a straw yellow when it is dry. In this land there are miles and miles of very flat land broken only by the highway and the yucca along the fence rows. There may be some occasional cows and derelict grain elevators along railroad tracks. And then, the biggest surprise of all, Palo Duro Canyon.

Do you have images of ‘yellow plains’ in your memories…what were surprises for you?