Prairie Notes

"Splitting 18" long rounds from a beetle-kill
pine tree we felled
so it wouldn't smash a shed..."
– Snyder, from "Gnarly"










What is now recognized as the world’s oldest prairie restoration was historically an oak savanna. Shortly after the area was settled in the 1830s, the central and western units were put in to cultivation and remained in that state until 1920. Parts of the eastern unit were occasionally cut for hay but were never plowed.

"one thing to see prairie from road"–
lead plants mix up with the tussock sedge,
wild witch burr oak limbs
could hold lanterns down the ground
so low the fingers fall–
"another to have your knee in it"

I ask have you ever seen an owl
in here? Picture the screech or the barny
naturally still poking up out 
that old hollow of a fence line oak.
"all my years here, never a one,
but heard them, plenty of mice."

Toss in the bucket big set of loppers
and pull out the pruners,
click the teeth to test 
and start skimming across the dogwood
and into a patch of multiflora rose,
thorns, the razor thin types, line the branches
and as they tumble
you gotta watch them from
falling on your head,
as the field at B1 opens back up
we scuff out leaves
find dirt again
toss a few seeds weighted by bark chips

"never once saw
a single one of these seeds
I kid you not"

someone pulled out the Triclopyr 4
and learned to use it