Could our looooooooooooooong winter finally be transitioning into corn planting? As farmers prepare for planting, some spend their spare time with a wide variety of hobbies. Area farmer, amateur bard, and Parkland Board Chair Lin Warfel agreed to allow me to share some of his latest works.

Rain Again

The forecast is the same
Rain…on the plain…again!
We have a constant shade
For day after day
It's gray

Farmers sit and wait
Watching the radar daily
That's where the color lives!
The screen has stolen the sun
Leaving us with constant gray
Some say change is coming
No one will rue the day
When the springtime sun
Sticks around
And the soil breathes a sigh

Let the planters roll!
Let the engines roar!
Let the farmers ply their trade!
Seeds a pouring
Into soft rich black soil
Itching to perform
Seeds swelling
With new life
Beginning again the bounty
That mother earth produces

Every year
When weather spurned
My Grandmother could be counted on
To say "Stand firm"
Just be ready
The weather always changes
And we plant the crop
We harvest fair
Here, we've never had a failure
Since sod was broken
Champaign County
Has yielded always
Food for us and others.

Relax! Stand firm!
(It's true! A century and a half!)

Selah, Lin 04/08

Beautiful Mud

Some folks can't see it
The way I do
In truth, to me
Mud is beautiful

It's black as coal
The soil around here
The product of being kissed
By ages passing
Late winter and springtime
The rains soak it through
Yes, its mud, that's true!
Wonderful, glorious, incredible mud!

That is today, only today,
Tomorrow gentle breezes
And springtime sun
Will caress with care
And the mellow, soft earth
Will become a garden
Aching for seeds
To prove its stuff

The drab winter clothing
Will be trumped by color
First green
Grass and leaves contesting
To be the first palette
Then purples and whites and reds and…

Ah, beautiful mud!
Let it be!
And have patience!
You and I will see
What it can do
In its time…

Selah, Lin 03/08