Williams College Reflections
Some of the Projects and Quotes from the Winter Study course with students from Williams College
Mike Vercillo is a member of William's acapala group Eph Flats and wrote a song inspired by time at Mountain Deer Taxidermy.
Listen here to: We'll Always Have the Land
Siobhan Harrity wrote four poems inspired by the week
It starts as a promisein the late October air.The low violet sunsetsgrow icy and weak, andthe red-gold abandon of the hillsis leached away by pale skies.Fall's glory burns itself upquicker than birch bark.Go slow now, down to the brook,running crooked throughthe cold glow of slender beech,clothed proudly in bronzethough all their neighbors are bare.Over and up to thedark fir ridge and there,as the horizon blurs andthe mute tingle begins to grow,from all sides at oncein silent concertcome the dry, dainty flakesof the season's first snow.
The best we can ask foris a daily layer of new snow.All footprints are coveredand the land looks peacefulunder unbroken white.But when the days get too warmand the clean veneer melts away,frantic mouse tunnels criss-crossthe fields, from fallen fir coneto forgotten grain.Their industriousness impresses,but the fierceness of their need repels,so we turn our eyes back skywardand wish for a fresh fallof beautiful ignorance.
Each year used to sink unnoticedinto all the ones that came before.Cold, inertial winter mornings,the body's joyous ache in spring.But now they seem to pile up,precarious towers of eroding stone.Another quiet treachery of the land revealed,another finger lost as proof of burden.Eyes that once held the firmamentbecome shadowy lacunae in ashy faces.But a fog-choked twilightmakes the years a mere vanity,and as time hangs suspendedin the wet mountain air,closer than the sound of thenot-so-distant highwaycomes the muffled crunch of a passing stoic,who has either never asked herselfwhy she is here,or else never thinksof anything but.
Awakenedto the blue planet spinning in black spaceto the creaking and groaning of the tectonic platesto the snow-muffled call of a chickadeeto the bruise spreading on her pale left kneeRemadeevery day in the image of a treeby the urgent song of a thawing streamby the thin, rocky soil of the northern landby digging and hauling with uncalloused hands.
Lyrics to We'll Always Have the LandListen here to: We'll Always Have the Land
A simple life, not much for want / On that small farm in VermontMy great-great granddad, long ago, stood where I used to standBeside my momma, gazing at our land My dad would hunt, he taught me how / A true and solemn vowTo love the things that give us life, the life that we all shareI held his rifle, although I was scared He said “son you’ve got him in your sights now, do not be afraidYour own daddy cried a tear the first shot that he madeBut son when it’s all over, you will grow in to a manWe’ll always have the land, we’ll always have the land” But as I grew, I came to see / The life ahead of meThat sturdy barn I’d always known began to fall apartI couldn’t watch, it broke my daddy’s heart I thought I had to walk away / To live another dayTo find the outside world and walk a mile in new shoesI told my momma what I had to do She said “son you’ve got it in your sights now, do not be afraidYour daddy, he may cry a tear when you go awayBut son when it’s all over you will grow in to a manWe’ll always have the land, we’ll always have the land” I found a job, I found a wife / Tried to move on with my lifeBut that city turned out colder than any winter’s snowThat old barn was all I’d ever known I said “Dad, I’ve got it in my sights now I am not afraidThose years ago I cried my eyes out when I drove awayAnd now that it’s all over I have grown in to a manWe’ll always have the land, we’ll always have the land” A simple life, not much for want / Back on that old farm in VermontMy boy picks up the rifle that I held so long agoI look at him I smile and I know I said “son you’ve got him in your sights now, do not be afraidYour own daddy cried a tear the first shot that he madeBut son when it’s all over, you will grow in to a manWe’ll always have the land, we’ll always have the land”
