Returning to Eagle Pond Farm

Wilmot Baptist Church

“The last red leaves fall to the ground
and frost has blackened the herbs and asters
that grew beside the porch. The air
is still and cool, and the withered grass
lies flat in the field. A nuthatch spirals
down the rough trunk of the tree.’’

— From “Back from the City,’’ by Jane Kenyon (1947-1995). She was New Hampshire’s poet laureate at the time of her death, from leukemia. She was the wife of poet Donald Hall (1928-1918), who was the U.S. poet laureate in 2006-07.

They lived at Eagle Pond Farm, his ancestral home in Wilmot, N.H.

From the Wikipedia article on Wilmot:

“Mt. Kearsarge, elevation 2,931 feet (893 m) above sea level, on the southeastern border, is the highest point in town. Winslow State Park, at the northern foot of the mountain, provides access by two hiking trails to the summit. The state park and the Winslow Trail are named after Captain John Winslow, the commander of the USS Kearsarge, which in June 1864 sank the CSS Alabama in the English Channel in a famous Civil War sea battle.

“The town is the home of Camps Kenwood and Evergreen, on Eagle Pond.’’

Editor’s Note: I used to look forward to seeing the impressive-looking (for its modest height) bulk of Mt. Kearsarge on my way between home, near Boston, and college, at Dartmouth, in Hanover, N.H.

View of Mt. Kearsarge from The Bulkhead on Ragged Mountain. The summit of Kearsarge has remained bare since a 1796 forest fire.