An expanding "Index List" of poem titles & poets
contributing to this section appears below.

Select & Click a Title to View Poem

View All of ► Page 1   Page 2   Page 3
*May, 2008 Additions

A Kansan Visits New York City --Al Ortolani
Almanac --Amy Fleury
Between...Mo & the Kaw? --William Patterson
Bird Song --Rosemary Parsons Torrez
Deserted Farm --Roderick Townley
Farming, Death... --Susan Kinney-Riordan
Flint Hills --William J. Karnowski
*Flint Hills --Phillip Alberet King
Flint Hills, Kansas --Primo Ventello
Gift -- Lois Virginia Walkder
Hawk Music --Maril Crabtree
Heavenly Gift --Nancy Julien Kopp
Kansas --Rushton Prince
Kansas Coastline --Amber Clontz
Kansas Cottonwood --Debra White
Kansas Omelet -- Bill Hickok
Lake --Daniel Spees
Looking...Seventh Floor --Emma Miller
Lost Voice --Larry Powers
Measuring Up --Robert D. Carey
Night Fires --Carolyn Hall
Noticing Two Cedars --kl barron
Prairie Clouds -- Barry R Barnes
Prairie Dogs... -- Dan Pohl
Prairie Idyl --Mark Scheel
Prairie Morn --Sally Jadlow
Prairie Quilting --Stephen Meats
Rabbit Babies --by R. Ossiya
Remembrance --Duane L. Herrmann
Remnants --Rachel Johnson
Ride...Top Down --Wilma Weant Dague
Spring Ritual -- R.D. McManes
Summer Night --Steven Hind
Today --Chantel C. Guidry
To The Prairie... --Harold L. Gray
Under Kansas --William Sheldon
Vacant Lot, Colony, KS -- Max Yoho
Wamego --Lori Stratton
Winter Reflections... --Paula Luteran
Wizardry --Gloria Vando
World News... --Laura Washburn

------------------------

Western Meadowlark

Through the open car window

seven needles in a haystack

BoPEEP-doodle-our-PEOple!

snatched by ear out of the moving

prairie, like you

already fading, passed, gone.

BoPEEP-doodle-our-PEOple!

If I could find it, it would be

points of sunlight glancing

off a brooch so near shades

of gold in these moving

grasses I could scarcely distinguish

it from the grasses. Like you

it is always gone.

BoPEEP-doodle-our-PEOple!

The bird pulled it off like a string

of catches on this flying

trapeze which keeps swinging

back. If birds' songs simply mean

I’m here! I’m here!

then why a song so baroque?

How many notes did it have?

Which notes were extra?

In the Beatles' "Blackbird"

you again hear a meadowlark, its song

canned as the slow-motion replay

of a pass-reception on TV:

Love studied into pornography,

Bo-PEEP-diddk-diddk-her-PEEP-hole!

The bird falls off a see-saw,

hesitates, picks itself

back up on the rising board,

completes its song.

It does it again.

I prefer the song that eludes me,

this one which we are passing,

banjo music picked out

through wind and distance

already falling behind

gone and not gone.

by Jonathan Holden, 1st Kansas Poet Laureate

This is not a literary journal, nor is it a contest.

The purpose of this collection is archival only!  ...and to create a "word mural" that others elsewhere might experience Kansas.

All contributors whose poems appear on the website retain the rights to their work.

All submitted poetry will be reviewed by the current Kansas Poet Laureate.  The Laureate & his appointed panel of readers make all final decisions on what appears in the archive.

Each poet's name will appear along side the title of their poem in the archive index.

------------

Have one GREAT Kansas Photo you'd like to share? Maybe a photo that accents your poem submission? Some images will be considered for placement among the poems.  Inquire, or send by e-mail. (Digital jpg images only.) Please include description of photo and its Kansas location. Contributors retain all rights. 

► Click Here to Submit  A Photo

Photos Contributed by Greg German