‘The Farm on the Great Plains ‘Atiephone line goes cok birds tread it wherever ie goes A farm back ofa great plain tugs an end ofthe line, call dat farm every year, it, listening. sil ‘noone Is home a the farm, the line gives only a um: Some year Till ring the line fon a night at lst the right one, and with an eye tapered for braille from the phone on the wall {il see the tenant who waits the last one left a the place; through the dack my bralle eye ‘ill ovingly touch hs face. “Hell, fs Mother at home? [No one it hme foday. “But Fahier—he should be there” No cne—no oe shee “But youware you the one... ‘Then the line vil be gone because both ends wil he home: ‘no space, no birds, n0 farm, From Paul Engle and Joneph Langland, eds, Pie Ghar (New York Dil Pres, 19. we My self wil be the plain, wise a winter is gay, ure as cold posts go pacing toward what Fhaow, AA glance at *The Farm on the Great Pains" jlis me with a secession of regrets about ity but these regrets ink with eat ances as [confront and accept something of my postion in ‘writing: an appearance of moral comitment mixed with deliberate—even a Maunted—nonsophiaication; an organized form caaliely rented trace of narrative foe company’ anid too many felings. There are emergences of consclousness In the poem, and some outlandish hinges for communication; but Tean stand quite a bit ofthis art of thing ia total pcm gives evidence of locating ise. ‘And the things here—plains, farm, home, winter, lavished al foyer the page—these command my allegiance in a way tht is beyond my power to analyze at the moment. Might I hazard that ‘hey signal something Ike austere hope? At any rat, they pos sessme. Teantinuc tobe a willing participant in the feelings and ‘contradictions that led me to write the poem 2