Nancy Paddock shows her attempts to strike a balance with nature in poem “It's a Pity." Also includes musical elements.

MPR’s Vickie Sturgeon produced and hosted this series of five poetic looks at life in Southwest Minnesota. Others include:

·         "Frogs" - "Frogs", a raucous small-town happening in a narrative poem read by Joe Paddock.

·         "Phil Dacey" - Southwest Minnesota poet reads several of his works.

·         "Polka Power" - a report and poetic response to the polka festival subculture in the Upper Midwest with poets Joe and Nancy Paddock.

·         "The Geese" - poet Joe Paddock shows his perceptions of the migration of wild geese across the Minnesota Prairie.

From the KRSW Poets-in-Residence Series.

Transcript:

(00:00:13) In a dream Nancy Paddock was told to turn and live with animals. When a dreams began quoting Quitman. She thought there must be something to it and decided to investigate just what it was that wild creatures had that she had lost touch with the following piece comes out of her attempt to find a way back into harmony with that deep center from which all life flows. I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so Placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God not one is dissatisfied. Not one is demented with the Mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole Earth. So they show their relations to me and I accept them. They bring me tokens of myself. They events them plainly in their possession. I wonder where they get those tokens. Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them? In Winter cheerful as in June, they flipped through iron branches or huddled in the Wind on naked feet. Small seeds are all it takes to keep their Spirits burning. If I were forced to live their lives the endless round of nests and eggs and Seasons full of snow. I would go mad and lose the will to sing. Flight would seem a waste of precious time and then I dream
(00:02:46) when the deer has been it down and the bear is gone to ground and the northern goes his wander off to warmer days. And so it's so easy and the cold to feel the Goodness of your heart is growing only for the morning. Now I've Tobar is growing thin and November's coming home with the Turning of the seasons and the sad things that you sing.
(00:03:47) Models like the wide belly of a
(00:03:50) goose the
(00:03:51) late Skies tricked with geese and lightning the are heavy with thunder guns popping in blinds Outside The Refuge a war going on here and Canada geese like Messengers who must get through dip their wings into the branches long necks stretched toward fields of corn and death. This is the journey. That is their lives forever. These cheerful Sally's over gun line pits this zest these cries of joy of yes. Yes,
(00:04:30) it's a Pity. We don't long what the little flowers know, they can't take the cold November the can take the wind and snow. those geese at lucky Pearl
(00:05:06) and all wild
(00:05:07) animals are perfect
(00:05:08) as they move through their lives without the doubt and greed which couple us I spent last winter watching a pair of cardinals who showed me away to be in the world. I'd like to live by these Cardinal rules nourish yourself close to the ground. But when you fly reading the sky with bright Wings stay close to the cover of dark branches or Red Alert to danger but not afraid. Feed peacefully with small chickadees and sparrows content with crumbs the world provides enough. When the J comes hungry and screaming vanish like a flame extinguished in the Wind. And in the cold in the days of iron Frost do not complain but stuff your belly with the seeds of your own burning life and fluff up your feathers to hold in heat. Even with your thin feet deep in snow. sing
(00:07:04) This program was produced by Nancy Paddock
(00:07:06) poet in residence for Minnesota Public Radio Station K. RS W care SW would like to thank Walt Whitman for a song of myself and Jerry Rao for singing turning toward the Morning by Gordon Bok. This song is from his album Minnesota Minstrel on train on the island records of Minneapolis. We would also like to express our gratitude to the
(00:07:27) birds along the yellow Medicine River for their Music produced in the Worthington
(00:07:32) Studios of care SW with assistance from Vicki sturgeon. This program was made possible
(00:07:37) in part with
(00:07:38) funds from the National Endowment for the
(00:07:40) Arts.