we’re all here now, in early fall walking
over Salt Creek, breathing the collective air,
right under our noses
—Morning Fog

TWYLA HANSEN

WILLIAM KLOEFKORN

Through the window I can see that
in a farflung world
treelimbs are bending
—At the Pantry

We see the cattle circling the pens, open-mouthed,
bellowing; but we hear nothing but the roar
—Tornado

LENORA CASTILLO

LOREN EISELEY

This is the end
Of property pride
Yet not the end
Of a door flung wide…
—For a lost home

MATT MASON

A car
passes, driver raises a finger,
different finger than Omaha drivers, as
it ain’t obscenity, you got time to appreciate it
as you ain’t gonna see another car
for miles.
—Burton

where the leftover fence wire
suns its loose coils, and stones
thrown out of the furrow
sleep in warm litters;
—In the Corners of Fields

TED KOOSER

DON WELCH

good luck with your rural project.
it’s a wonderfully fertile world.
—The school greets me like a series

Were all the teeming regions of the dawn
Unpeopled now? What devastating need
Had soset so many faces pale with greed
Against the sunset?
—The Sowing of the Dragon

JOHN G. NEIHARDT

YVONNE HOLLENBECK

The simple upright beauty that will put them all to test
is a windmill on the prairie when the sun sets in the West!
—A Windmill on the Prairie

Allison Hedge Coke

Until there is dust we must remain
settled here where we were lain.
—Skeletons

You standing is a domino effect. So when I ask you to repeat after me, this is not a joke. This is not just for laughs. I am charging you to do something different and stand for your community.
—standing for something

Felicia Webster