Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.
Michael Simms: Scarecrow
Dear friends: my new full-length collection of poems, Strange Meadowlark, is available for ordering. Please click here.
In the meantime, here’s a sample poem from the collection:
Scarecrow
When the scarecrow was new,
He wore an old shirt of my father’s,
A pair of khakis from Goodwill,
A pair of shoes from Salvation
While his head full of rags
Was held by the strings
Of his neck. He didn’t complain
When the tractor finished the rows
Of corn and he was left alone
To watch the green sprouts rise.
Growing taller by the day
They held up green hands
In supplication, whether to the sun
Or the stars we never knew
.
As necks grew long, flowers
Of tassels misted a powder
Blown by the wind and each one
Became pregnant with something
That looked to us like joy.
The scarecrow watched over
His congregation, even as wind
And storms tore at his clothes
And the crows grew to know
His indecisive guardianship,
Persisting on his cross of sticks
As lightning played in the air
© Michael Simms 2023. From Strange Meadowlark (Ragged Sky, 2023)
Michael Simms is the founding editor of Vox Populi. His many books include the fantasy novel The Green Mage (Madville, 2023). He lives in Pittsburgh.
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I love this poem. No wonder I found myself, in a dream last night, in a field with crows and lightening. Also – that beautiful section that ended – pregnant with something that looked to us like joy.
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Thank you so much, Clayton. Your comment makes me happy.
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Michael – Your poetry is so accessible. I’ve always been intrigued by scarecrows, even more so after they were”fleshed out” in this writing. They somehow evoke melancholy even though they are meant to instill fear. No wonder they are indecisive…..
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Thanks, Patricia!
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Ordered your book, Michael–very exciting!
Michelle
Michelle Bitting, MFA, MA, PhDshe/her/hers Senior Lecturer Department of English http://www.lmu.edu Nightmares & Miracles Broken KingdomThe Couple Who Fell to Earthwww.michellebitting.com
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Thanks, Michelle!
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Love it. “And the crows grew to know / His indecisive guardianship, “
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Thanks Rose Mary!
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Michael, thanks for this poem, and for including three other scarecrow poems along with yours. None of those, however, featured a turn that took us to Calgary…a beautiful hurt!
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Thanks, Louise, Read my novel Bicycles of the Gods for the turn to Calgary. https://www.amazon.com/Bicycles-Gods-Divine-Michael-SIMMs/dp/1956440046/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1691856106&sr=1-1 Bicycles of the Gods: A Divine Comedy amazon.com
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Oh the picture in my brain, feel of the field, the newness snd aging of an indecisive protector. I love how you put us in the field observing the lifecycle of the corn. And I can taste it the way it tasted when I broke off an ear and sat in the dirt, summer sugar dripping down my chin, too good not to consume it raw in the moment.
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Thanks, Barbara. You’ve made me see the poem a new way.
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Lovely poem. Best of luck on your new book. ________________________________
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Thanks, Robbi!
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Seamless, moving, the closing so perfect I gasped!
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Thank you, Laure-Anne. You know I love your poems, so your praise means a great deal to me.
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Michael – What a good way to start my day! Simple but wonderful images that evoke whole other things. Congratulations! I’m smiling both because of your words and because they are now out there for lots of other readers..
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Thank you!
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