What is that wonderful smell
Drifting from field to window
Driving through the Pennsylvania countryside?
It is the smell of new mown hay…
Alfalfa drying in the summer sunshine.
Aroma like mint tea leaves crushed between fingers
Overpowering the rich smells coming from
The cow manure flying from the spreader
Still pulled by Amish horses a century later.
Alfalfa hay raked and baled filling hay mows…
Favorite of cows and heifers on cold winter days.
Green turned to white and hauled away
In a bulk tank truck for our breakfast table
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Photo: from the family album
At d’Verse poetry group today Bjorn asked that we think about scents in our poetry today. Having worked on my uncle’s farm for five summers as a teenager, I have a great appreciation for the scent of new mown hay. Alfalfa was the hay of choice in Pennsylvania. This smell always takes me back to the farming days of the early 1960s. The photo above comes from that era.
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Roth Poetry 
I do miss that smell when I lived near the Palouse of eastern Washington.
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There is nothing quite like it!
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That is a distinct and wonderful smell of summer sunshine ~ Reminds me of the simple life in the farm.
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Yes a wonderful sensation!
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Thanks for your comment!
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Lovely poem about a lovely smell and memory. Although it makes me sneeze!
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Thanks you! It is too bad it tickles your senses that way. There is nothing quite like it!
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This is wonderful – it brought back great childhood memories of living in the country.
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Thanks Jo! There is nothing like it!
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It reminds me of my childhood on a big farm
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Thank you!
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The smells weave their way through your poem and my own memories of playing near farmland as a child – a lovely write Dwight! ☺
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Thank you so much!
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I heard smell is the oldest and strongest of all our senses. Describing something so intangible is a real feat! Makes me want to go out and stick my nose in every bush and plant around here.
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Thank you! Be careful of the bees!! LOL
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One of our neighbours came round yesterday to ask if we would like our meadow mowing but it’s still full of flowers. When you look closely at it, there’s not much grass in it at all! We said we’d wait until the flowers had set seed before making a first cut.
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Very wise choice! Thank you!
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I think so 🙂
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We use a scythe later on so the blooms can set seed also… 🙂
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Husband scythes some of the bottom land that’s too uneven to get a small tractor over and to save the saplings we don’t want destroying. We let the deer do that 🙂
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They will eat the sapling tops for sure…
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And the bark.
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A scythe works well on small areas but notso much on a five acre field.
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Actually with such hay I think even the reek of manure can be pleasing…
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Ha Ha! yes it helps sweeten the pot!
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I have never been on a farm to be frank… but gosh your poem makes me wish I had been 😍😍 Absolutely lovely! 💜
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It is a great life. Quite different from city life.
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Thank you so much…
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Was the prompt scents? Oh oh, I thought it was just open link. I know he posted a poem on scents, I messed up.
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I think it was just a suggestion not really a prompt!
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I like your scents. Mint leaves overpowering the cow manure…is that possible?
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Only a little!
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As long as they are not side by side!
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Nice transition from green alfalfa to white milk.
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Amazing isn’t it! I could have added dirt to the beginning of it as well.
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Love the smell of alfalfa! My mother-in-law is a farm woman, and when the smell of manure is ripe in the air she always says, “Smells like money.” I’m sure she intends the literal meaning, but the figurative meaning is good as well.
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I love the smell of fresh cut alfalfa…and cows 🙂
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It is a great aroma!
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As soon as I started reading I could smell it! Very well written as always.
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Thank you so much for your kind comment!
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I’m dizzy with all these smells! Beautiful descriptions.
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Thank you Vivian!
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🙂
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