Poetry Xtras » "In The North Pasture" by Jared Carter

The need for self-reliance in rural areas is constant and inescapable. People who live on farms and out on the prairies and in the mountains must confront the wondrous and the inexplicable on their own terms. There is little mediation. Strange births, hail storms, tornadoes, rainbows, shooting stars, meteors lighting up the land, the Northern Lights, the vastness of the Milky Way spread across the night sky—all are part of being out on the land, in touch with the weather and the changing of the seasons. Such witnessing contributes to a sense of being alive and being a part of it all.