Just now I invite you to journey
across the seasons, the sounds
of the prairie, my home, yours?

Late fall has a challenge in moving
summer away, winter begins
In the middle the full orchestra plays,
the winds, brass, percussion, strings
So many sounds surround us
Please, settle back, close your eyes
and listen

Wind driven rain
on window and me
sometimes softly, gently
pitter pattering,
drip, drip, dropping
and sometimes exploding
huge splashes and splats
tinged with ice and snow
The prairie is getting a cleansing
and a pasting down for winter
gluing leaves to earth
laying down tall grasses
winds whistle past us this way and that
banging doors, whistling in songs
we know.
Thunder rolls, lightning crashes
cymbals, tympanies, bass drums, snares
wind chimes on the patio hurry
barn walls creak, metal roofs respond
Awesome energies swirl across us
and then comes silence

Winter settles over us
gray days and gray sounds
broken by fireplace sounds
the wood trying its best
to speak to us
tell us
in cracks and pops and hisses
about the years gone by
Ssssssss, listen
Crack! Wake up!
Stoke the fire
and remember the
chop, chop chopping,
the buzz of the chain saw working
The man noises of lifting,carrying, stacking
clunk, clunk, clunk, the rick is built and waiting
Early morning barn noises remembered
cattle feet shuffling
animals munching, eating
sounds of milk in metal pails
the cats meowing, begging
then the pigs squealing, pushing
each other to get some more
The chickens greeting grandma
as she scatters feed amongst them
Later morning finds us grinding feed
high pitched whines and tractor humming
hymns of life, eating