Hi, I’m Tarfia Faizullah, here for Poets on the Plains. Today, I feel a bit sheepish sharing one of my own poems, but it’s a poem that serves as a snapshot of my own life, so I’m excited to share it, and share about it. I am the author of two full length poetry collections with a third on the way, and I teach creative writing at UNT.

After the U.S. Government encouraged the extermination of approximately 30- 60 million bison on the Great Plains, and before the cattle barons built their huge herds, there stood a brief time when sheep grazed on the lush grasses of the Texas Panhandle. For many years prior to 1874, sheep from the New Mexico Territory, Spanish settlers and Indigenous sheep farmers herded sheep along the Canadian River. The Spanish called them “Pastores.”

The HPPR Radio Readers Book Club's 2026 Fall Read, Wind & Weather, explores our enduring relationship with the natural world through four remarkable books that move us through the seasons—and through the power of the atmosphere itself.

Hunting seasons are just around the corner! Larry Weishuhn, a/k/a "Mr. Whitetail”, is Luke's guest this week.