Diorama, Peabody Museum
Someday, when I am an old man
I will climb the stairs one last time
To the room where all is kept safe,
Where the farm rests quiet in June,
The paint fresh, the barn straight and square.
Near the pond the blackbird sings.
The watersnake slumbers on a log,
Imbued with the noontime sun.
I will feel the zephyr upon my face
And touch my fingers to the glass.
In the farmhouse by the open window
A man and woman are talking of their children
Who left long ago, and of chores to be done before night.
I must help them, though they will not know me
At first, but soon will love me as a son.
I will start out, resolute, for the house.
The snake will wake with my first step,
Diving deep, and swimming to where we both were born
On that summer day full of hope
When the cows came to drink.
To a White Oak
Remember me,
And return the favor I gave you in May,
When I knelt to watch your buds open in the sun,
And marked your place to find you
In July’s thicket, lest you be lost in darkness
And that place become your grave.
Remember me,
And repay me the pains I took in June
To protect the leaves that give you life,
Your apex that races to the sky,
And your limbs that one day will rejoice in the wind
And bend down with your progeny.
Do not forget me,
For I put you in the earth to live five hundred years
And to become the most beautiful of all,
And to call my name to the acorns as they fall,
So they too will remember
And we will make our mother proud.
R. Gibbs Photo
Carl Anthony Nelson is a native of Connecticut and grew up exploring the land and waters of New England. He came to Wisconsin in 1973 to study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and later at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Since 1988, he has cared for 200 acres in the Driftless Area of western Wisconsin, attempting to preserve its ecological health within a landscape dominated by 21st century agriculture.