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.
Claire
Kim
