Prairie Posters

Poetry and photography of the plains: poetry written between 1936-1941 by a young and talented poet named Harold L. Gray and photography by his son Kevin L. Gray. Poems taken from the book To the Prairie and to God by Harold L. Gray, published posthumously by his son in 2007.

Yet, Harold L. Gray was a young man aware of his place in the Great Depression and Pre-World War II years. His poetry captures both a youthful optimisim (even in those times having come from a dusty farm) to an unmistakable clarity about his own mortality.

1. To the Prairie and to God - original print

2. Kansas Prelude - photo taken at the Leavenworth Nat. Cemetery

3. A Farmer's Thoughts or The Surge (tanks on a train passing through West Texas summer 2007)

4. To the Prairie and to God - horizonal print

5. Love in a Dingy Tea Room

6. Missionaries

7. Transformation - photo taken at the Leavenworth National Cemetery

8. To the Prairie "Deep Blue" horizontal print

9. Try the High Road Last

10. Vision In Solitude

11. To A Lunchkit

12. Unrest Forgotten - the Civil War section ot the Paola, KS., Cemetery

13. Mourn Not For Me (using Harold Gray's Navy keepsakes)

14. The Span

15. Chalk Marks Are Dust (a Moraccan man 1943 taken by Harold Gray)

16. We Meet As Friends (a Moraccan girl -1943 taken by Harold Gray)

17. A Farmer's Thoughts (with filter added) or The Surge (tanks on a train passing through West Texas summer 2007)

18. Sunflowers ("Landscapes" by Harold L. Gray)

The book To the Prairie and to Godmay be purchased for $15.99 at:

totheprairieandtogod.com

worldaudience.org

From the poet's son at:

Posters are all 11 X 17 and may be purchased for $8.00.

Checks or postal money orders made out to Kevin Gray will be accepted. Checks may take longer to clear your bank. The $8 also includes cost of mailing and shipping in sturdy mailer tubes.

Check or money orders should be sent to:

Kevin L. Gray

812 East Wea Street

Paola Kansas 66071

OR:

PayPal may be the most convenient way to pay. Contact Kevin Gray about this.

Email for information at:

totheprairieposters@gmail.com

Phone ordering

Call 1-913-731-0030 between 8 am and 5 pm 7-days a week.

Harold L. Gray, approximately 1937 in West Salem, Illinois, before leaving for Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1938, where the majority of his poems were written, specifically about the prairie, Kansas, and nature.

Dad at 1921 South Elm in Pittsburg, where he wrote most of his over 200 poems.

Writing poetry and reading appeared to have occupied his time during those post Great Depression years and pre-World War II build up years.

I never knew about Dad's poems, nor did I ever him speak of anything remotely anti-war during my formative years in the 1960s and Vietnam, yet my father wrote,

"The battle days (we hope) are done/Let no more bayonets prick our sod" in "Kansas Prelude.

In "A Farmer's Thoughts," he wrote, "For he heard the war pigs/And their stirring up a row."

There was a poem called "Unrest Forgotten," where Dad's theme was how we forget those who sacrifice for their country...

The poet's son and photographer, Kevin L. Gray, in his study in Paola, Kansas.