Found poetry based on Great Plains diaries (1920 – 1957)
April 15-16, 1940 Rained in night snowed this morning chicken for dinner baked biscuits for supper shortened the sleeves on Will’s new gray shirt put buttons on his suit ripped my old black coat in hopes of enough for a topper and put black flowers on my new hat
April 14, 1949: First Meal men got in two small calves gave one a bottle of milk with sugar his first meal before mother claimed him
Today’s poem, below, is from an otherwise ordinary day in Hattie’s life that hints at her ability to attend to and appreciate details, the diversity of farm activities, and, most poignant to me, her regret at having talked too much. (Just a reminder that in April I am posting a poem a day as part …
Hattie was glued to her radio the evening of April 12, 1945 and for several days afterward to learn of the death, funeral train, and burial of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In subsequent years she often remarked on the anniversary of this day, writing on April 12, 1956 that “our Nation is in sorrow untold, and …
