From “Four Civil War Paintings by Winslow Homer” by Ted Kooser
4. THE VETERAN IN A NEW FIELD
A lone man scything wheat
His back is turned to us, his white shirt
the brightest thing in the painting.
Old trousers, leather army suspenders.
Before him the red wheat bends,
the sky is cloudless, smokeless, and blue.
Where he has passed, the hot stalks spread
in streaks, like a shell exploding, but that is
behind him. With stiff, bony shoulders
he mows his way into the colors of summer.
I love this painting. For me it is the essence of painting and maybe even America. So simple at first glance, just a man in a field and yet the more time I stare at it, the more it says. The weapons are cast aside, the Civil War is over and there is an aura of peace about the scene. Yet, the scythe reminds me of the grim reaper and the way is it just mowing down the stalks causes me to wonder about the machine guns that just decimated the soldiers and mowed them down as it was turned from side to side. Homer specifically tells us this is a new field, that the death and destruction is behind the soldier giving the viewer a sense of hope.
In approximately 60 words, Ted Kooser eloquently relays more than I blathered on about in the entire previous paragraph. That is what I love about poetry, to concise relay thoughts and meaning. I’m a Kooser groupie and to find that he was written about one of my favorite American paintings was cause for celebration during National Poetry Month.
Here are some avenues for you to discover poetry meaningful to you this month:
- Sign up to receive a poem-a-day during National Poetry Month
- My favorite poets are Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver and my favorite poetry collection is Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor
- Personally, I generally like poetry better aloud than reading it. Diesel, a Bookstore is posted a poetry reading everyday this month on Chatter, the bookstore blog. Here’s the link to the archeive and here’s an example
- Another source for listening to poetry is to sign up for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, he gives a bit of literary history each day and ends the podcast with a poem. It is by far my favorite podcast.
- For the Angeleno art lovers, “The Veteran in a New Field” is visiting LACMA until May 23rd, drop by to see it before it returns to the Met.
New addition: Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit (one of my favorite blogs) is organizing a National Poetry Month blog tour, it’s a great chance to discover several different poets.
Tags: Civil War painting, Civil War poetry, listening to poetry, Mary Oliver, national poetry month, poems read aloud, Ted Kooser, Winslow Homer
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I just read Kooser’s Delights and Shadows, which is the collection that includes this painting – so glad to see the art that inspired the poem. I’m so glad I discovered his book at the library – I hadn’t heard of him before!
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Hello from Indonesia, Kim. I just signed up for the automatic feed of your website/blog a couple of days ago. It is quite enjoyable. I have good memories of attending one of your book groups in L. A., over the course of a year in the early/mid 1990s ,which led me to your website a year or so ago.
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I love Kooser’s poetry as well. I would love for you to add your post to my National Poetry Month Blog Tour Mr. Linky. If you are so inclined, you can snag a button and add it to your post.
Great post about Kooser and the painting.
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Carrie – I love Kooser, I know you enjoy Collins, as do I, so I hope you’ll like him as much as I do. Look for his book of Valentine poems, for years he wrote a poem each year to friends on a postcard for Valentine’s Day and they are collected in a book.
Ann – I can’t keep up with you! Great to hear from you. Did you feel the earthquake?
Serena – Thank you for the reminder to jump in on your blog tour! Everyone should drop by and see all of the options you listed.
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I’m so glad that there are even more posts than I had pre-scheduled for the blog tour. Thanks for linking up and feel free to link any more throughout the month that deal with poetry!
thanks for the compliment about my blog as well. That made me smile. -
We did not feel the quake. Indonesia covers about the same area as the U. S. does; we live in Jakarta on the island of Java – so we felt nothing. Indonesia is – not – a reading society, which permeates all levels of one’s life while living here. We have a number of big chain bookstores here in Jakarta with all the latest U. S. titles; but, I miss the general interest people have in a reading society and where that leads even a casual daily conversation whether with the vendors on the side of the road or a neighbor.
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I also like to make poems and read lots of books that is related to Poetry.-::
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i love poetry because it is a way of expressing my own feelings.`-’
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poetry is the thing i like, i create poems during my spare time;;,
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poetry has the power to affect our emotions by using words alone, i really love poetry .”.
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