Horse Prayers: Poems from the Prairie
By Anna Blake
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About this ebook
*2019 Readers' Favorite Bronze Medal Winner.A collection of poetry from a small farm on the Colorado prairie; tiny stories in simple words, praise for the beautiful fragile land, and love poems to horses. This is a 106-page book of poetry and full-color photography, a softcover mini-coffee table book.
Some heartfelt, some humorous, these poems are a howl to the prairie wind. I'm a woman on a farm, wonderstruck by this simple life with its plain beauty; the comfort of daily chores and bittersweet sunsets. Even my words can't look away.
And the horses. This gray mare isn't over that girlish phase. None of us are, so I write love poems to horses, putting words to this equine passion that powers a central part of our lives. What is it that pulls us so fiercely to horses?
Anna Blake
I’m an animal advocate, award-winning author, solo RV traveler, old-school feminist, dog companion, unabashed lover of sunsets, and professional horse trainer/clinician. I’m sixty-nine years old. I’ve done just about everything and done it well. No longer auditioning.My books include:Stable Relation, A memoir of one woman’s spirited journey home.Relaxed & Forward: Relationship advice from your horse.Barn Dance, Nickers, brays, bleats, howls, and quacks: Tales from the herd.Horse Prayers, Poems from the Prairie.Going Steady, More relationship advice from your horse.Horse. Woman. Poems from our lives.Undomesticated Women: Anecdotal Evidence from the RoadI was born in Cavalier County, North Dakota, in 1954, the youngest daughter in a farm family. Now I live at Infinity Farm, on the flat, windy, treeless prairie of Colorado with a herd of reprobates, raconteurs, and our moral compass, Edgar Rice Burro. Previously, I was a self-employed goldsmith, showing one-of-a-kind artwork in galleries from coast to coast. My Denver studio and gallery were shared with generations of good dogs.Early writing included a few screenplays, one of which was produced independently, and articles for several periodicals. Every Friday since 2010, I have posted an unconventional and popular blog about life on the farm and horse training. My unique perspective combines Calming Signals and Affirmative Training for a special method of understanding, training, and respecting animals.Thank you for stopping by.
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Book preview
Horse Prayers - Anna Blake
Wolf Moon
Wish
We felt them close
before we had skin,
from an infinite prairie
the vibration began.
A slow rolling nicker
rumbled, more felt
than heard. Horses
called to us before
we were born, so we
would remember their
warm breath when we
first saw fairy-tale images
in children’s books. We
were theirs long before
we called them our own.
Journey
Peeping through a knothole in a pine fence,
a wind-worn cheek pressed to splintered wood.
Craning to watch a small girl in a handed-
down green t-shirt and blue jeans, scuffing
rubber-capped tennis shoes toward the
dairy barn. She's dragging a play-train,
three cardboard boxes strung together
with dirty twine, stuffed animals riding in
each box. Her voice carries; she's talking to
an old border collie in a manner so familiar
that my chest aches, closer than kin. Crooked
bangs, cut too short. The girl pauses when
the middle cardboard box catches on a weed
and the gabardine seal goes tail up. She gives
the twine a sharp tug to right the box and
the train rolls on. Hey, tomboy, safe journey.
Against Odds
Roused by a whisper
from a lost distance,
through cold glass
windows in deserted
basements, down wet
alleys past dumpsters
and stained mattresses,
heart-sore and bruised.
Relentlessly following
switchback dead ends,
thirsty creek beds, and
childish yearning, finally
to surrender the ache.
Come to rest on the
cooling prairie at the
far edge, by the stars.
Plain
Dreams are only
transparent. On this
routine day, let my
eyes close in simple
praise for ordinary
moments of wanting
what I already have.
Exhale
Oh, just admiration,
the gray horsewoman said,
pale eyes deep in tan skin.
Always kinda liked ’em…
But when she exhaled
there was a throaty sound,
deep and soft, with a faint
whisper of a nicker.
Spare
She’s a spare donkey, no longer of
use since the cattle were sold, since the
rancher moved to town. She’s uprooted,
landed in rescue, not eating but not dying,
she has come here to make up her mind.
My farm has a spare pen for a decrepit
long-ear. She’s brittle as ice but I have
more issues about my own age than she
does hers. Those eyes are nearly worn
out and her gray coat has felted to steel
wool. She has string halt, lifting her stilted
hind hooves too high each step. It’s been a
a spare life with few luxuries, not that she
minds. Prairie old.