Robert Bly: "Driving Toward the Lac Qui Parle River"

I
I am driving; it is dusk; Minnesota.
The stubble field catches the last growth of sun.  
The soybeans are breathing on all sides.
Old men are sitting before their houses on car seats  
In the small towns. I am happy,
The moon rising above the turkey sheds.

    II
The small world of the car
Plunges through the deep fields of the night,  
On the road from Willmar to Milan.  
This solitude covered with iron
Moves through the fields of night
Penetrated by the noise of crickets.

       III
Nearly to Milan, suddenly a small bridge,
And water kneeling in the moonlight.
In small towns the houses are built right on the ground;  
The lamplight falls on all fours on the grass.
When I reach the river, the full moon covers it.  
A few people are talking, low, in a boat.



"Driving Toward the Lac Qui Parle River" by Robert Bly, from Silence in the Snowy Fields. © Wesleyan University Press, 1962.

Photography credit: "Headlights at Night," by unknown photographer (originally black and white).