Pasture in Morning Light
by Ken Hada
Pasture in Morning Light
The soft light of late June
shadows pecan trees
and green grass
so abundant, so unrelenting.
Trees heavy with leaves
nod in morning breeze.
Sunflowers follow a fence
in uneven rows
as if a drunk gardener,
stumbling along, dropped seeds
in irregular rhythm –
some unforeseen order
that turns out just right.
That irregular growth
is a path to understanding,
a place where divine longing
meets human perception.
Green glory grows undeterred.
Even the sun has its limit.
Everything follows its hidden course:
Something no poet can paint,
no mortal can match –
birds singing
in soft silent awe.
| Ken Hada, Come Before Winter Turning Plow Press, 2023 Used with permission |
I'm often referred to as a Nature Poet, and I admit that that term makes me uneasy, because I do write about social issues and other topics, but mainly because it might suggest an easy sentimentality, with which I don't want to be associated.
Nonetheless, most of my work is grounded in Nature, in natural settings. I think it is NOT a matter of using Nature in poetry, but HOW one refers to Nature. In so many of my poems, there is a speaker who is confused, or alienated or somehow out of balance, and the Natural references in the poems attempt to correct or console or offer more healthy considerations.
I want my poems to demonstrate a humble participation with Nature, not a stupid attempt to dominate it, nor an oversimplified easy sentimentality.
But I don't want to lose a sense of wonder, which marks much of my work.
I'm also attracted to beauty in deterioration, or in the dying process, as well in the new births that the Natural world displays for us in the cycles of Time. I'm rather seasonal in my work.
I'm influenced by the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, the appreciation of imperfection, and transience – these also inform my thinking.
In this poem, irregular growth is a path to understanding. I like to notice things that are irregular, or not neatly prescribed, or things that defy our over-reliance on technology to help keep us grounded.
Finally, I often use light and darkness and the shadows in my work. This poem points to morning light which allows us not only to notice the beauty in the paradoxical order of the sunflowers standing in irregular patterns along a fence, but also perhaps sheds light on the poem's speaker, and hopefully on readers as well.
It has been my privilege to read and talk about a few poems by Oklahoma authors on this program. I especially want to thank High Plains Public Radio and Traci Brimhall for making this all possible.
POETS ON THE PLAINS HOST AND FEATURED POET
Ken Hada is a poet and professor at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma where he has directed the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival for 20 years. Ken is the author of twelve collections of poetry, including his latest: Visions for the Night (to be released April 3, 2025), and Come Before Winter, from Turning Plow Press. His previous collection, Contour Feathers (Turning Plow Press, 2021) received the Oklahoma Book Award. Other works of his have been awarded by The Western Writers of America, The National Western Heritage Museum, South Central Modern Language Association and The Oklahoma Center for the Book, and featured on "The Writer's Almanac." In addition to his poetry, Ken remains active in scholarship, writing and publishing regularly on regional writing, literary ecology and multicultural literatures. The “Ken Hada Collection” is held at the Western History Collection Library at the University of Oklahoma. Ken Hada: https://kenhada.org/ or khadakhada@gmail.com
