The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems

By Greg Seeley

The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems chronicles the struggles and triumphs of three generations of an Iowa farm family over a 125-year period. The story begins with a soldier coming home from the Civil War and setting foot for the first time on his newly-purchased farm and ends when the land next changes hands in the early 1990s.
The book is the story of the family, their friends, and their neighbors as they try to adapt to the changing world around them. Their lives and personal aspirations are shaped by two world wars, a harsh climate, the dust bowl, and the Great Depression. They seek to meet this adversity and thrive through love, self-reliance, work, faith, and a strong sense of community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496936929

Greg Seeley

Greg Seeley grew up on a farm north of Afton, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a major in history and received his master’s degree from the University of Iowa. Greg is a retired certified public accountant and lives in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife Carolyn, a retired math teacher and former farm girl. As a boy, Greg often heard stories about his ancestor’s lives on the family farm. He has recounted these stories, with some license, in his first book, The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems. Greg hopes that readers will experience the same feelings of strength and fortitude that sustained the horse lawyer, his family, and his neighbors. The poetry is for all who have ever wondered what their lives would have been like had they followed, in Robert Frost’s words, “the road less traveled.”

Book preview

© 2014 Greg Seeley. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   09/04/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3693-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3692-9 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface

Ira (1828–1907)

A Citizen Warrior

We’ll Start Tomorrow

First Crops

Relics of the Field

Fowls in the Air

Glaciers

The Arrogant Land

First Sergeant

Frank (1870–1958)

His Rocker

If I’m Going to Be a Farmer

A Cattleman Schoolmaster

The Horse Lawyer

Mormon Footsteps

Sewing

Dependable Orville

The Fraternity of the Soil

Teamsters

Alta Coats Died Last Night

Master of the Fields

A Cross in the Field

Horse Envy

Stock Options

Eulogy for a Percheron

Big Smith

Oh Land!

The Windmill Doctor

From Soil to Dust

Lost Fire

Just Take It

From Plowshares Into Swords

No Watch

Bibles, Almanacs, and Ledgers

Why Me?

To Be a Nurse

Two Shall Be As One

It’s Getting Gray

The Last of the Horses

The Reaper in the Weeds

Walking Home

Donald (1920–2009)

Lonely Scholar/Educated Horse

A Reluctant Civilian

When the War Is Over (I’m Leaving)

Marry the Farmer, Marry the Farm

The Farmer Professor

The Last Blacksmith

Singing

From Horses to Hay

It’s Not Idyllic

The Oak Behind the Shed

A Different Dream

The Land Is a Magnet

A Gentleman Farmer

Epilogue

Fulfillment

This book is

dedicated to my great-grandfather Ira, who dreamed of building a farm in Iowa, and to the two generations of reluctant but dedicated farmers who followed—my grandfather Frank and my dad, Donald. It is also dedicated to my great-grandmother Martha, to my grandmother Imogene, and to my mother, Virginia—each a pioneer woman who stood with her husband and shared it all.

—Greg Seeley

Cover Photo: The horse lawyer, Frank Seeley, with a team of Percherons.

Taken by Virginia Seeley, circa 1945.

Preface

This volume of verse chronicles the experience of an Iowa family on the same piece of land four miles north of Afton, Iowa, over a period of 125 years. Though the story is told from my own point of view, based largely on childhood recollections and things told to me by my parents and grandparents, it is not my family’s story alone. It is, in a sense, the story of generations of thousands of other farm families and those around them—who, in the brief span of less than a century and a half,