Poetry
In 2020, my chapbook "Rented Chickens" won first place in Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook contest. "Rented Chickens" is available for purchase on my etsy site.
Poetry is a form of diary keeping. I have written more than 400 poems to date, and many are published. My poems have appeared in the annual calendar for Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Rosebud, Free Verse, Hidden Treasures, Hummingbird, Wisconsin Academy Review, Ariel, and many others.
Petition to the Post Office
Make my farm into a postage stamp.
From a plane, house and farm buildings
set back from a road traveling nowhere.
Crop squares in varying hues,
bright green lawn surrounding the house
and maybe me a speck looking up to see
who is in my space.
Sometimes rain and sun are just right.
Sometimes rain falls too often
or not enough. Low crop prices
are sometimes high enough
to break even, sometimes not,
and I consider quitting,
returning to a plushy job
with pay and benefits
until the next season pulls me forward,
seeds sprouting to grains that nourish,
tangible, life essential commodities,
a contribution, flourishing without a thought
to world affairs or media celebrities.
Sitting beside the corn,
listening to the leaves gossip,
watching deer steal soybeans,
sand hill cranes and their young
move from field to field
like a pack of hungry gypsies,
entertainment enough
without watching television
or going to town.
The city will encroach someday.
Lights flicker like giant fireflies
on the hills and valleys, closer every year
at the end of construction season.
If you make the stamp,
I could pick up the farm,
move it further from unwanted intrusions,
keep my world the way I love.
All Materials are copyrighted © 2020 Candace Hennekens
Poetry is a form of diary keeping. I have written more than 400 poems to date, and many are published. My poems have appeared in the annual calendar for Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Rosebud, Free Verse, Hidden Treasures, Hummingbird, Wisconsin Academy Review, Ariel, and many others.
Petition to the Post Office
Make my farm into a postage stamp.
From a plane, house and farm buildings
set back from a road traveling nowhere.
Crop squares in varying hues,
bright green lawn surrounding the house
and maybe me a speck looking up to see
who is in my space.
Sometimes rain and sun are just right.
Sometimes rain falls too often
or not enough. Low crop prices
are sometimes high enough
to break even, sometimes not,
and I consider quitting,
returning to a plushy job
with pay and benefits
until the next season pulls me forward,
seeds sprouting to grains that nourish,
tangible, life essential commodities,
a contribution, flourishing without a thought
to world affairs or media celebrities.
Sitting beside the corn,
listening to the leaves gossip,
watching deer steal soybeans,
sand hill cranes and their young
move from field to field
like a pack of hungry gypsies,
entertainment enough
without watching television
or going to town.
The city will encroach someday.
Lights flicker like giant fireflies
on the hills and valleys, closer every year
at the end of construction season.
If you make the stamp,
I could pick up the farm,
move it further from unwanted intrusions,
keep my world the way I love.
All Materials are copyrighted © 2020 Candace Hennekens