I have spent most of my life in small-town Illinois.
It has been good for me to live where I can see a long way in all directions
and where the sky goes on forever. I would not enjoy being hemmed in by mountains,
shoved up against an ocean, or surrounded by a desert. The ordered simplicity
of rural Illinois has certainly been a big influence on my poetry. I cannot
emphasize this too strongly. "Ordered simplicity" is what I strive for in my
writing. My themes and images come from the very lifeblood of prairie Illinois.
They would include the rivers, cornfields, railroads, courthouses, wildlife
and wildflowers, county fairs, trees, yellow school buses, farms and farm animals,
and, always, the people and the ever-changing seasons.
- Dave Etter
AT SUNSET ON THE PRAIRIE
by David Etter
At sunset on the prairie,
great cornfields climb to the sky.
My sunburned arms are sticky with sweat
and sprinkled with pollen.
There are sad mouths in the shadows
that hunger to be kissed.
I watch the last streaks of pink light
fade beyond the water tower.
In the kitchen of tall windows
a moon girl sings my name.
Oh what dark secrets I have gathered
to amaze her flashing eyes.
UP THE ILLINOIS RIVER
by David Etter
Ragged leaves and cigar wrappers
scurry across the beaten grass.
The river waters my dusty eyes.
Stray-dog sunlight tongues a pale petal
that is shaped like a gambler's hand.
Thunder booms in the west
and all the sailing clouds come home.
Drops of rain fall, big as walnuts.
Ghosts of drowned deckhands
talk about coal and jinxed towboats,
then lie back, quiet, exhausted
in their castles of catfish.
Off to the south, a feather of smoke.
An Illini girl burns her wedding dress.
Twilight comes, slime-green and eerie.
Now the air is soft, belly smooth.
The boy who moves out of the lamplight
has a guitar as big as God.
If he plunks just one taut string,
I will explode a thousand images.