Truth
by James
Hearst
This is Michael Carey for Voices
from the Prairie a weekly sampling from the rich soil of Iowa’s literary
tradition. The poem I am going to read is from 1962 and is called "Truth."
It is about not being afraid to go out and live and get your hands dirty and
to find out all the glory and the bumps in the road that God has in store for
you. It’s plain-spoken language, its rooted metaphor, its courage, honesty
and indomitable spirit make it, for me, a great poem and a very Iowa
one.
Truth
How the devil do I know
if there are rocks in your field,
plow it and find out.
If the plow strikes something
harder than earth, the point
shatters at a sudden blow
and the tractor jerks sidewise
and dumps you off the seat-
because the spring hitch
isn’t set to trip quickly enough
and it never is – probably
you hit a rock. That means
the glacier emptied his pocket
in your field as well as mine,
but the connection with a thing
is the only truth that I know of,
so plow it.
"Truth" by James
Hearst from Snake in the Strawberries published by Iowa State University
Press. It can also be found in Selected Poems by James Hearst published
by the James & Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts, and in the Collected
Poetry of James Hearst to be published in 2001 by the University of Iowa
Press.
For Voices from the Prairie and Humanities Iowa, this is Michael Carey hoping you continue to hear the music blooming all around you.
Biography
Mr. Hearst was born in 1900 and died in 1983. Though paralyzed at a young age from a tragic accident that left him confined to a wheelchair, Mr. Hearst continued to farm all his long life and to teach at the University of Northern Iowa.