the prairie

June 24, 2022

On the prairie the grass is so green that no camera can capture each shade. I’ve tried.

The grass is so vibrant bursting with green life after a rain. It’s so bright that it fills your entire soul with light. The air is so sweet and clean you can feel your breath moving through your whole body. The birds never stop chirping flitting from flower to flower — all species of plants blossoming.

I am resting in my hammock on the edge of a lake — another oasis on the great plains journey — watching the cotton seeds blow from the cottonwood trees. There is a thunderstorm on the horizon that I am watching from my sandy beach campsite that I came upon quite accidentally.

I read that cottonwoods trees can live over a 100 years and they would be a marker for people to set up camp, build a homestead, or rest. The belief is that if a cottonwood can survive, then other species will thrive.

Some of them are quite large. They have beautiful thick bark. They have to be strong to survive the strong winds, flash flood rains, tornadoes, and drought that can last for weeks or years.

A reminder that some of the brightest spirits get that way because of their journey.

—

A cottonseed just blew on me —
so many blowing in the breeze.
They like traveling —
same as me
same as the river
the neosho flowing.
Oh to be a cottonwood seed—
to let go in the wind.