The Beauty and Wrath of Nature
Julia Barton
JUNE 21, 2008
- Under the weather
- (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
- View the Slideshow
Web Resources
Related Stories
- Foreclosure Double Punch
- The End of Weekend America
- Conversations with America: Concluding the Conversation
- Good News, Bad News, No News
More From Julia Barton
All this week in the Midwest, bags are being filled with sand, handed down a line of people and placed to dam the rising floodwaters of the Mississippi River. Meanwhile, the waters are receding in Iowa and residents are starting to figure out how bad the damage is.
At the University of Iowa, officials aren't using the phrase "billions of dollars" to quantify the losses -- but it could come to that. Yet they're determined to start their summer session there on Monday.
James Galvin teaches poetry at the Iowa Writers Workshop there in Iowa City. And it turns out, he's also a part-time rancher in Wyoming. He's given weather -- its simultaneous power of beauty and destruction -- a lot of thought:
"Testimony"
by James Galvin
You can't step into the same
River even once,
And why would you want to? You can't
Lie down without turning your back
On someone. The sun slips
Like butter in a pan.
The eastern sky arrives
On the back stoop in its dark
Suit. It draws itself up
Full height to present its double
Rainbow like an armful of flowers.
Thank you, they're lovely.
I step outside where the wind
Lifts my hair and it's just
Beginning to rain in the sun,
And the earth silvers like a river
We're in, I swear to God,
And you can't step out of a river
Either. Not once.
"For Our Better Graces"
by James Galvin
God Loves
the rain, not us.
Ours is
what spills over,
what we look for
that finds us:
innocence
by association.
Cloud shadows
feel their way,
rapid and blind,
over the face
of the prairie.
Pine trees
atop the ridge
row the world
into the damp black sky.
God's mistress
rides by
on a feather of water.
After she is gone
her fragrance
is everywhere.
-
- Music Bridge:
- After The Flood
- Artist: Talk Talk
- CD: Laughing Stock (Verve)
Comments
Comment | Refresh
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Weekend America reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.