Poetry Performed Episode 030 - Prairie Spring by Willa Cather

April 22, 2019 is Earth Day, and this week on Poetry Performed, we’re celebrating with Prairie Spring by Willa Cather.

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Prairie Spring by Willa Cather

Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.

Willa Cather was the author of more than 20 books, and was best known for her fiction, not her poetry, included such titles as O, Pioneers! And My Antonia. She was inducted into the American Poets’ Corner at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in 1990. This honor is permanently housed at the church and is modeled on a similar corner at Westminster Abbey in London

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Theme music provided by David Hilowitz.