An introduction to a new regular Beacon Feature
Sometime in 2012, a group of local Belle Fourche residents who liked to write banded together and started to meet regularly. As a group, the members are diverse, but all have at least one common bond, all have fixed roots in, or near to Belle Fourche.
Back in 2012 or maybe 2013, one of the original members, Holly Mosely wrote a poem that immediately drew the attention of the Belle Fourche Writers’ newly formed anthology committee.
Holly’s poem, titled Roots Grow Deep in Strong, so neatly represented the Belle Fourche Writers’ collection of stories and poems that it soon became the title of their first anthology.
However, this article is not about the Belle Fourche Writers. Rather, it is about Holly’s poem and how it continues to offer insightful interpretations about life in and near Belle Fourche. This article is also about how an idea for a regular Beacon feature came about.
Holly’s poem Roots Grow Deep and Strong implies that the practice of persistence and the influence of place, reinforces the natural bonds that help communities work together. People in Belle attend funerals, take food to grieving families, volunteer for charities, and form lasting friendships.
We have stories to tell.
In Belle Fourche, as in any town, our stories involve drama, poetry, music, forgiveness, and love. Sometimes there are tangles. We make efforts to avoid “troubling the next generation.” Here, in our community we find nourishment and endure. At the same time, our stories are unlike those of other towns.
Our new Beacon feature column will also borrow the title Roots Grow Deep and Strong. The column will be about people and events from Belle Fourche past and present, whose stories become our story. The purpose of this column is to share Belle Fourche stories, keep them alive and in so doing, clarify and celebrate the identity of our shared community.
I have ideas for subjects for this feature Roots Grow Deep and Strong, although suggestions are always welcome. I look forward to researching and writing these articles. We hope readers like them too.
Roots Grow Deep and Strong
Here, on the open plains,
I see clearly.
Nothing obstructs my view
And the wind tears away my illusions,
Aided by this setting –
Here, on a cemetery hill.
Only truth abides.
In death and on the plains
There is only one posture.
The upright stones
Resist the wind
As their namesakes did in their living.
Ultimately, we are all dust
Troubling the next generation.
Yet on the prairie
Roots grow deep and strong,
Find their nourishment
And endure.
