The farm is an interesting place

you can see many animals living on the

edges of the fields and woodlots, sharing

the space with a plethora of machinery

some active and some kept for parts.

The animals are not wholly wild or wholly

tame, some like the birds, foxes and skunks

occupy the old buildings. It is the life we

have left them, a life on the margins. and an

evening stroll might lead to an encounter

with a piece of New Holland farm equipment

( shades of Swiss Family Robinson )

or a young buck.

The remnants of the old farm machinery

also fascinate me as I mentioned before.

I loved Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged

when younger and even thought I am well

past any romantic view of the wonders

of industrialization I still read the old

trade names on the fading metal and

remember the images of industrialization and  

mechanization and it's attendant machines

running down as the world slides towards

John Galt's new Utopia.

" Cocked in that land tactile as leaves

wild things wait crouched in those valleys

west of your city outside your lives

in the ultimate wind, the whole land's wave.

Come west and see: touch these leaves."

                             Midwest

                                                 William Stafford

"Paddled in the bright grass, the old farm

Warm as a sack about me, feel the cold

Winds of the world blowing. The patched gate

You left open will never be shut again."

                                       Invasion on the Farm

                                                       R.S. Thomas