Photo & Poem: Home Farm

The mare stands square, extending her neck, surveying the pond marsh. Are the coyotes on the move? She takes three or four precise steps closer and holds, eyes alert for small movements out of rhythm. So aware of the earth’s language, without the dulling filter of floors and walls, she feels change by the shifting … Read more

Photo & Poem: Girl-Cousin

Seems every farm family had one in a generation; a distant misfit girl-cousin who read too much or wore men’s jeans or hated to cook. As soon as she could, she traveled away to Portland to work in a library or to Tucson to be an artist. The family only whispered her name then, kitchen … Read more

Photo & Poem: Holiday Place

  You had a plan for how this would go when you left home. Longing for a thing different than how it was. Maybe a career or a husband. Maybe the perfect sofa because you wanted to rest, blanket around your feet and a tortoise-shell cat like the one when you were a kid, lounging … Read more

Photo & Poem: You Know the Way

  The rhythm of hooves over even soft ground, we’ve lost time out together, rocked safe in the saddle like breeze through the oaks toward a bottom-heavy sun. Lulled by the sway of his stride, we’ve wandered too far, dirt-worn and words gone. Just as I pause, not sure of the way, his cadence builds … Read more

Photo & Poem: Home Farm

Skeletal power poles from the wind turbines out east litter the view of the mountains, splintering the sunset. New construction treads closer, tract homes and fast food. This farm was never announced by miles of white vinyl fencing, just a mailbox at the end of the driveway. There are mismatched fence panels, some white, some … Read more

Photo Challenge: Relax

Memoir Babies not embraced turn into sullen kids not good enough, graduating to insecure young adults, lost in bad decisions for long skeletal years, just searching for the undeniable place where shoulders soften, bellies peacefully sag, and each breath out hums the melody of utter belonging. …. Anna Blake at Infinity Farm Horse Advocate, Author, … Read more