The Art of Baling Hay 
Revisited

Out I go with vigor to absorb

The beauty of the day  --

Out I go with subtle joy

To gather and bale the hay…

I know that fall will come

And winter too will pass  --

Spring will cross the horizon  --

And summer will come at last…

From season to season

From winter’s ebony

To the brilliance of a July day  --

What brings to me great pleasure

Is the art of baling hay…

Some would not see the beauty

In the sculpture of the straw  --

But as memories reappear

Someday they will recall

The beauty they once saw…

The bales are formed

And placed in fields

As reward of labor done

For the turning of the seasons

And cycles of the sun…

Could I find a greater passion

Than sharing the earth in harmony

And viewing creation

As patchwork beauty

Across the quilted land I see…

Spring will gently smile  --

Summer will ease the sun

Across the heated sky  --

Fall will greet winter’s pallet

As to summer it says good-bye…

And yet the bales of hay

Will hold the flavor and memories

Of days gone past

And what I will recall

Will be the baling of the hay

And doing what I love that last…

The art of baling hay

Provides for the artist

A way to sculpt the earth

And in the beauty of the design

One comes to understand

What the art of baling hay is worth…©

 By Juanita Pittman-Brown

2006