Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Santa Fe Trail Day

Today is Santa Fe Trail Day!
The Santa Fe Trail was a historic 19th century transportation route across southwestern North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, and New Mexico.
We'll be doing some of these activities.We will also be celebrating
Great Poetry Reading Day,
perhaps by reading this
Santa Fe Trail
by Barbara Guest
I go separately
The sweet knees of oxen have pressed a path for me
ghosts with ingots have burned their bare hands
it is the dungaree darkness with China stitched
where the westerly winds
and the traveler’s checks
the evensong of salesmen
the glistening paraphernalia of twin suitcases
where no one speaks English.
I go separately
It is the wind, the rubber wind
when we brush our teeth in the way station
a climate to beard. What forks these roads?
Who clammers o’er the twain?
What murmurs and rustles in the distance
in the white branches where the light is whipped
piercing at the crossing as into the dunes we simmer
and toss ourselves awhile the motor pants like a forest
where owls from their bandaged eyes send messages
to the Indian couple. Peaks have you heard?
I go separately
We have reached the arithmetics, are partially quenched
while it growls and hints in the lost trapper’s voice
She is coming toward us like a session of pines
in the wild wooden air where rabbits are frozen,
O mother of lakes and glaciers, save us gamblers
whose wagon is perilously rapt.
Take Your Daughter To Work Day,
and Blueberry Pie Day!

5 comments:

Tara said...

Santa Fe... now there is somewhere I have always wanted to visit.

Enjoy your celebration :0)

Noel said...

poems are such a good way to remember history - it's hard to find the appropriate poem though - good job!

Butterfly 8)(8 Bungalow said...

Neat.

The American Girl series Josephina is mostly about Santa Fe, but it does mention the different trade routes from Missouri and Mexico City to Santa Fe.

Cher Mere said...

Cool poem!

Coincidentally we learned that Santa Fe was the first European permanent settlement in the Western U.S..

Garden State Kate said...

Thanks Gals!
P was totally NOT interested
in anything I had ready, so we'll return to this subject another time. I think dealing with my Grandmother's "stuff" was too distracting for us this week.

Subscribe Now: poweredby

My homeschool buddies and I are all posting pics of our "home schools" as part of our idea sharing.

Plato said...

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child's natural bent .