The Farmer
By W.D. Ehrhart
Each day I go into the fields
to see what is growing
and what remains to be done.
It is always the same thing: nothing
is growing, everything needs to be done.
Plow, harrow, disc, water, pray
till my bones ache and hands rub
blood-raw with honest labor—
all that grows is the slow
intransigent intensity of need.
I have sown my seed on soil
guaranteed by poverty to fail.
But I don’t complain—except
to passersby who ask me why
I work such barren earth.
They would not understand me
if I stooped to lift a rock
and hold it like a child, or laughed,
or told them it is their poverty
I labor to relieve. For them,
I complain. A farmer of dreams
knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams
knows what it means to be patient.
Each day I go into the fields.
Maverick Mist 
Ah yes, the patient life of a farmer ..
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For sure… 🙂
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This photograph was taken in the US, right?
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Yes it tis. It’s in Kansas, like Dorothy and Toto. 🙂
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As I thought. Was just checking. Farm buildings look so very different in France 🙂
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This one’s a bit different, barn styles here vary. A French barn would be built from stone at least in my imaginative romantic rolling hill vineyard vision. 🙂
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Not all of them would be stone but yes, your imagination is doing pretty good 😉
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Nice barn photo. I read his Wikipedia entry to see if he grew up in a rural area or on a farm because he really seemed to have a sense for it but didn’t see anything that would indicated that. Came back here and reread the poem. Maybe I’m reading too much into it but I can now see that it could be read as him going out on patrol in Vietnam everyday.
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Thanks David. That’s an interesting analogy. I hadn’t thought of it but you could very well be right.
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This reminds me of a neighbour, Maverick. He is now retired, but once a farmer. He cannot stop. He is up at the crack of dawn watering, tending his lawn. We even see him out close to midnight, weeding.
They are certainly a breed of their own. And we are in such need of them!
Loved your image… xoxoxo
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Thanks Carolyn. My grandparents were farmers and they were always up before dawn. Hard work but they had a passion for it. 🙂
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Mine were dairy farmers and they too worked ever so hard and long hours. Like yours they had a passion… 🙂
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Nice one… We all should be farmers of dream (Having Patient). We Dream, we take our first step towards the Dream, but might not see a thing… But be patient and keep going to the field… For a day will come you will be filled….
Farmers of Dream
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Nice one here
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