Storm Farmer is a beautiful, poetic offering from the creative voice of Tracey Gass Ranze. This compilation of poems observes life through the lens of the heart, leaving the reader immersed in the full emotion of the experience; whether it is a winter storm or a peace march, one feels touched. In Gass Ranze's first collection of poems, selected from over 30 years of writing, she expresses her love of life and open spirit in poetic storytelling at its best. Storm Farmer moves powerfully through six chapters of verse, where even ordinary events are rendered into instinctual moments of frank honesty. Throughout this book,, these poems speak to the invisible power that weaves people together as one human family on earth. This book delivers a fresh perspective of life in community with family, nature, spirit, justice and politics, often with an alternative view. Storm Farm introduces Gass Ranze as a powerful and progressive leading voice in the revolutionary times of this new century.

Storm Farmer

Collected PoemsBy Tracey Gass Ranze

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Tracey Gass Ranze
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4678-3535-0

Contents

Storm Farmer...................................................1The Old White Church...........................................3Two Farms......................................................5Coffin Wagon...................................................6Teacher's Note.................................................8Pammy to Pam...................................................9Storm Farmer...................................................10Pittsburgh.....................................................11bridge span....................................................12river debris...................................................14Nightgown......................................................15it's a herd of turtles.........................................16go dutch.......................................................17Meeting Halley.................................................18home sprouts...................................................20blue island....................................................22this mess is a place...........................................23Sleeping In Sky................................................24folk lure......................................................25Yearbook.......................................................26jensen's ledge.................................................28Butterfly Wings................................................31waiting........................................................33October........................................................34Butterfly Wings................................................35Harrisburg.....................................................37Satin Stillness................................................38room empty, the leaving........................................39the heavy......................................................40loneliness.....................................................41paper dolls....................................................42punctuality in actuality,.....................................43intersection...................................................45purple asters are in bloom.....................................46September Mourning.............................................49Election 2000 the Magicians.................................51tender november layers.........................................52September Mourning Tripod......................................54pieces of a thousand years.....................................57nourishment....................................................58Allow a Slice of Sonnet from My Heart..........................59Window Panes...................................................60Ballad of Andy Brown...........................................63Like Alice,....................................................64Black Armband..................................................65Fighting for Peace is like Raping for Love.....................66the tribe inside...............................................68piped the People of We,........................................69A Litany of Lies a Listing.....................................70barbeque at Powell Library.....................................73to the fracking gas frackers:..................................74century,.......................................................75bumpers........................................................77radioactive rain...............................................78Crows Into Night...............................................79i see..........................................................81Neighbors' Talk................................................82Tangerine Gates in Central Park................................83the brown bird.................................................85the drink......................................................86oh brother,....................................................88glass breaks, fire is slow.....................................89when wearing this bonnet, excise chatter.......................90where is summer?...............................................91Blue Jean Sonnet...............................................92beast..........................................................93grace zone.....................................................94Crows Into Night...............................................95wingless.......................................................96hands in march.................................................97white paper bag................................................98Bone...........................................................99riding,........................................................100ocean song.....................................................101gray whisker shadow............................................102autumn cracks..................................................103look up........................................................104the daughters and the locust root..............................105Water Bearer...................................................107women drumming.................................................109sweat lodge....................................................110Woodstock Nation...............................................112Rainbow Gift...................................................113strawberry moon................................................114walking earth..................................................115celebrate life.................................................116the golden eagle,..............................................117watching dreams................................................119dear vincent,..................................................120Water Bearer...................................................121Mountain Home..................................................125Cushetunk Falls................................................127river glass....................................................128feathers full of music.........................................129supper table...................................................130Mountain Home..................................................131early..........................................................132sunrise sand...................................................133eagle speak....................................................134the hot lazy...................................................135green heron hunt...............................................136inside hemlocks walking........................................138ice-storm taps.................................................139Ice Flight.....................................................140evening drapes.................................................141

Chapter One

    The Old White Church

    1. Overlooking a crossroad of traffic and lives
    an old church once perched on a hill
    big and boxy with the clapboard painted white
    standing closer to heaven

    an old church once perched on a hill
    like a ship anchored in a sea of gravestones
    standing closer to heaven
    keeping watch over ancestral bones

    like a ship anchored in a sea of...