Ex-CSC prof writes book of poems on rural life

Called “Songs of the Meadowlark,” the book contains about 70 poems -- most of them short -- that Hulm wrote about his childhood and youth on a farm in the Meadow, S.D., area, where his father, Joe, and brother, Don, resided. The boys’ mother, Annabell Penor Hulm, died with Lee was four and Don was six.

The all-male household had no electricity until Lee was five or six, no television until he was in high school and never any running water. Yet, he definitely has fond memories of those days, as his poems reflect.

Hulm, who was on the CSC faculty 36 years and now lives with his wife, Jean, in Goodyear, Ariz., said the book is intended to give the reader a new and deeper insight into the true flavor of farm and ranch life on the high plains and the values it produced some 50 to 60-plus years ago.

The author believes many readers will be prompted to recall special memories of their own earlier days. He sees value in that.

“All too often, it seems to me, we become so caught up in the day-to-day activities of our lives that we are inclined to neglect our heritage,” he writes in the introduction. He adds, “Rural farm living allowed for a contemplative approach to life that I believe has been drowned out by all the noise and hubbub of modern times. It appears to me that we are about to lose an entire value system, and I don’t know how we go about replacing the spirit and tenacity of our ancestors.”

The poems include wit as well as wisdom.

For instance, he recalls being “humbled” by “underhanded associates who professed to be my friends” while he held a sack in the dark for hours during an infamous snipe hunt. He also remembers when skunks made their winter homes beneath the floor of “the idyllic prairie church that served the tiny town of Meadow,” during the winters, giving a new meaning to the word pew “until the skunks bid adieu in the spring.”

The following poem helps illustrate some of the things Hulm and others like him learned from their days on the farm:

Awesome

I am in awe at the rising sun

and rainbows following summer showers

and pastures overgrown with wildflowers.

I am in awe at newborn lambs

and fresh colts cavorting on wobbly legs

and chicks emerging from incubated eggs.

I am in awe at alfalfa blossoms

and aromas adorning a morning’s breeze

and honey manufactured by busy bees.

I am in awe at lightning bugs

and spiders ambushing in hollow logs

and tadpoles transformed into little frogs.

I am in awe at natural things

and paintings detailing nostalgic themes

and poetry influenced by nature’s schemes.

 

Copies of the book may be obtained for $14.95 plus $2 for shipping from Hulm at 3033 North 148th Drive, Goodyear, AZ 85338-8919.