Prairie Elms: The Ladies & Gentlemen of Plano, IL

Prairie Elms, Book 3 of A Prairie Trilogy (Books 1 and 2 are, respectively, Awakening in Prairie Light and A Prairie Labyrinth), provides the basis for the journey and labyrinth of Books 1 and 2. Befitting what is essentially a chronological anthology, the poems celebrate rites of passage: graduation, marriage, a new home, cancer survival, a move, a homecoming, memorials as caused by a community’s aging, and so on. As such, they reflect life in small prairie towns where most young people still move away after high school or college. A few personal names were changed to protect the innocent and the guilty: I believe that mine is not to judge, but to show. A brief [note] is provided for most of the poems, while complete publication credits and notes comprise Chapter III.