Original typescript of Lake Harvest and Peach Buds by Raymond Knister.
Three men harvesting lake ice, ca. 1912.
Lake Harvest
Down on the flat of the lake
Out on the slate and the green,
Spotting the border of Erie's sleeping robe of silver-blue changeable silk,
In sight of the shimmer of silver-blue changeable silk,
In the sun,
The men are sawing the frosted crystal.
Patient the horses look on from the sleighs,
Patient the trees, down from the bank, darkly ignoring the sun.
Each saw sings and whines in a grey-mittened hand,
And diamonds and pieces of a hundred rainbows are strewn around.
(After Exile, page 6)
Part of Seven Poems, published in The Midland: A Magazine of the Middle West in 1922. (Volume 8, Issue 12)