Pronghorn Sheep in Wyoming

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Ruth HERE. She is living now in Paraguay and is sharing some beautiful early morning photos she took while birdwatching and a lovely short poem. Thank you, Ruth.

This week my husband and I are on the road, today driving through Wyoming. Below is the prairie and a few buffalo. The buttes, mesas, rock formations are breathtaking, as I’m sure many who read this might know.

Sage brush extends everywhere on the Prairie. This is a pronghorn sheep and they eat sage brush, as do over one hundred other prairie animals.

I wanted to share something this week, though I’ve had little time. I wrote this poem today, inspired by the endless sage and the sheep. I found the photo on Google. 


PRONGHORN SHEEP AT EIGHTY MILES AN HOUR 

Late March, past my car window,
clumps of gray-green sage,
tough and dry as the land,
wave and twist in the wind
near Route 80.

Sage is everywhere,
like sunlight,

dotting ravines,
buttes, 
mesas,
the grassland
that stretches to
distant mountains.

to be eaten
by pronghorn sheep
and buffalo

all day
every day 
a feast of
stem and leaf.

Four sheep, 
grazing, 
heads down
in prairie silence
under a blue sky

come and they go. 

©Janice Scully (draft)

Thank you Ruth for hosting!

13 thoughts on “Pronghorn Sheep in Wyoming”

  1. Wonderful!

    I wonder if the sage there is the same as the sage we have here? It smells so heavenly! I love to think of all those creatures eating it.

  2. Janice, as I live so far removed from the setting you describe in your poem, I am grateful for your efforts to accurately capture these scenes in your poem. You took me as a reader right into that moment, that place, with your strong attention to visual imagery. A poet uses words as an artist uses paint…

  3. I’m jealous. I would love to be driving in Wyoming enjoying the sage and the space and the sheep sightings. What a wonderful response to your travels. And, wonderful inspiration for me.

  4. Thanks for a small moment with the wide horizons, the big skies, the wildness of pronghorn and bison, and the smell of sage. Ahh…

    Love your poem, especially

    “Sage is everywhere,
    like sunlight,”

  5. Janice, I’ve never really traveled through wide open prairie for any great distance. This poem feels like it speeds, then slows, reminding me that life is fast, but each moment is to savor. Beautiful!

  6. I know those prairies and pronghorns & you’ve captured them so wonderfully, Janice. What a special trip you are taking! I love “feast of stem and leaf”! Happy travels!

  8. Thanks for your poem and info about pronghorn sheep. It was wonderful to tag along with you on your drive out west.

  9. Janice, my husband and I traveled this past week across Death Valley which also is dotted with “sage…like sunlight.” I, too, tried to capture in words the light that appears to shine from below – from the sage. Beautiful!

  10. What a beautiful picture your poem has painted – but I am so glad you also shared the photo of that sheep – I could not have imagined such a creature! Thank you.

  11. I love the line “a feast of stem and leaf.” You capture the way that the sage is as plentiful as sunshine.

  13. Here I am, Janice, a week late but I am so glad that I am making the rounds again. While I have never traveled through the prairies, I am struck by your words, “in prairie silence”. I loved the imagery in your poem and enjoyed your photos. Thanks for bringing us along on your travels.

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