Bertha Rogers, poet and visual artist, has taught poetry, mythology, making artist's books, and theater design in public schools for over 30 years. Her poetry and reviews frequently appear in journals and anthologies. She has won fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Millay Colony, and the Ucross Foundation; and NYSCA and NYFA grants. SLEEPER, YOU WAKE, her poetry collection, was published in 1991. Her visual art has been shown in over 200 juried exhibits and solo shows. Founder and director of the Catskills reading series Word Thursdays and Share the Words: A Catskills High School Poets and Writers Consortium, she is also editor of Bright Hill Press.
THE CORN FIELD


		I hard-walked
		into the green sea daily,
		into the damp center,
		on the black bottom soil,
		where the corn started up
		each night, restless every night.

		I stood, crowded,
		fighting for air,
		confused
		by disappearing crows
		and the feel of leaves
		on my skin, my dissolving skin.

		I was drowning 
		in the corn.
		I was up to my chin
		and I was drowning
		and no human was there,
		but the prairie wind,
		the big blue wind,
		was blowing everywhere,
		all the time, through time.

		And the wind,
		the flat blue wind,
		sighed, covered me,
		took my air, closed me.
		Then I drowned in the green corn;
		in the dark green corn,
		under the black loam
		is where I drowned.