Harvest Wind Farm

Last Friday, I traveled with a group of 18 people to the town of Pigeon in the Thumb of Michigan. Our object was to visit the Harvest Wind Farm. We saw the windmills that have been turning since March of this year, and learned from Brion Dawkins, local alternative energy expert, his wife Kathy, principal of Laker Middle School, Peter Sinclair, Midland global warming educator, and Janea Little, naturalist with Midland's Chippewa Nature Center, a great deal about the benefits of harnessing wind energy, and a great deal about the human ingenuity that has brought this choice within our reach. Amidst the wealth of scientific and practical information shared, I felt inspired by seeing the windmills. I wrote the poem below so that I can remember that moment of inspiration -- literally, the intake of breath in response to what I saw.


Harvest Wind Farm: Sufficient

The triune turbine
spins leisurely in the soybean field.
Some meters away, its twin rests still.
Throughout the fertile acreage,
a few others turn
while a mute score stand silently.
By this I see the life that pulses
in the invisible air.
Here, it moves, there it moves not.
What appears monolithic though transparent
in fact contains zones of diversity.
Movement east, movement west, stillness all betweeen.

Where I perceive one, or nothing,
the windmills show me multitudes.
There is more life than I can see directly.
The reflected movement of the air
illuminated by the elegant, pure white blades
quiets me.
This vision is sufficient for today.



Sarah Gorman
Pigeon MI
June 20, 2008