Savor the Seasons

By Joe Millard

Joe Millard reflects on the landscape of Iowa in his new poetry collection, Savor the Seasons. His poems portray a land alive with nature, flowing with rivers that are visited by thunderstorms and winter blizzards. This is a place where flowers flourish, rivers reign, grain grows, and people play. Joy and sadness mix with the feel of rain, the sound of wind, the sight of life, and the smell of death.

These verses are intended to speak to those who are passionate about the land and have a feel for the soil. The collection is organized by seasons, beginning with spring and ending with winter, with each season speaking in its distinct voice; they may not always obey the calendar, but rather express their moods when they are ready.

From his 1953 poem entitled December, written while he attended high school in Jefferson, Iowa, to Mississippi Journey, a reflection on Huckleberry Finns excursion, Millards poetry captures the true essence of life in the Midwest.

Savor the Seasons

Heed the spring thunder,

enjoy the summer sun,

experience an autumn sunset,

taste the winter snow,

and embrace the magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491708651

Joe Millard

Joe Millard is a lifelong resident of Iowa. He earned a BA and MA from the University of Northern Iowa and a PhD from Iowa State University. Joe and his wife, Fran, have four children and ten grandchildren; they live in Waukee, Iowa. This is his fourth published book; he is also the author of Seeing Through Gray Colored Lens, The Quiet Journey (Memoirs 1936 to 2000), and Where Did All the Cowboys Go?

Book preview

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Residents of the Basin

Spring

An Iowa Symphony

A Prairie Sea

The Bashful Wildflower

Meadow Music

New Fence Post

Three Visitors

An Electrifying Performance

Spring Monsters

Flight Delays

A March Night

When Memories Wake Me

Choices

A Changing Scene

The New Town Square

Mississippi Journey

Owners of the Land

Seasonal Sacraments

Summer

Off the Interstate

Welcome to Iowa

Ruth’s Café

The Morning Forum

Maple Leaf Lane

Looking for Treasures

Straw Hats and County Fairs

Hidden from the RAGBRAI Riders

The One-Hundred-Year Flood

Tamed Stallions

Return to Innocence

Growing Up on the Delta

Giving Thanks

Gone Fishin’

Night School

Nature’s Scouts

A Magician Performs at the County Fair

May to September

Iowa’s Face

Autumn

A Moment with Monet

The Winemaker

Survivors of Autumn

Parallel Universe

A Life with No Seasons

The Final Diary

Watching Autumn from a Hospital Bed

Tomorrow

Autumn

A Vacant House

Ladder to the Hayloft

American Comfort

They Never Left

Recess

Farm Fragrance

Those Damn Flies

Survival of the Monarchs

Exit, Stage Left

Winter

Winter Arrives

First Kiss

A Winter Wish

Capital City

Nighttime Makeover

Bald Men

Who Could Love Iowa?

Arctic Artist

The Beauty of the Winter Goddess

Autumn’s Leftovers

December

Reminders

Aging

A Long Way from Galway

Farlin’s Death

What Will He Miss?

And So It Goes

An Alphabet Almanac

Seasonal Evolution

Winter into Spring

Copyright Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the editors of the following publications where these poems first appeared. Some are in a slightly different form.

Lyrical Iowa: An Iowa Symphony; The Violet, renamed The Bashful Wildflower; Mississippi Journey; Night School at the Swimming Hole, renamed Night School; Those Damn Flies; and Watching Autumn from a Hospital Bed

Sweet Annie and Sweet Pea Review: An Iowa Winter, renamed Winter Arrives

Hidden Oak Poetry Journal: The Winemaker

Seeing Through Gray Colored Lens, Trafford Publishing: Savor the Seasons, A Changing Scene, Maple Leaf Lane, Ladder to the Hayloft, A Life with No Seasons, Tomorrow, and Survivors of Autumn

Anthology of High School Poetry, 1953: Bald Men

For Fran

Preface

Savor the Seasons is a collection of poems about Iowa’s weather, nature, and people. December was written in 1953 when attending high school in Jefferson, Iowa. An Iowa Symphony received the Norman Thomas Memorial Award and was first published in the 2004 issue of Lyrical Iowa. Mississippi Journey is a reflection on Huckleberry Finn’s excursion. The rainstorms of 1993 that repeatedly battered the land provoked my writing of Return to Innocence.

The poems in Savor the Seasons tell of growing up on a farm in Greene County, Iowa, attending a one-room school, fishing in the Hardin Creek, and spotting a bobcat when hunting rabbits as a boy. Other poems are about ongoing Iowa occurrences: the Iowa State Fair, spring tornadoes, the disappearance of small villages, and winter snowstorms. Combined, they are a portrayal of Iowa’s past and