by August & Andrea Murray
I was raised in a place where green fields kissed the sky,
Where maples stood proud and tractors rolled by.
The mountains were home, and the land was our gold,
We worked with our hands, in the sun, in the cold.
Many barns now sit empty, their cows are all gone,
Equipment sits rusting, with work left undone.
The farm sign just hangs and swings in the breeze,
Where buckets once hung on the sugar maple trees.
And I miss the sound of the rooster’s crow,
The hum of the milker in the daybreak’s glow.
Now it’s boarded-up Grange Halls where the past used to breathe,
And the weathervanes spin, searching in the breeze.
Tell me what happened to the land of the free?
Where flocks once filled churches, and the people believed,
A handshake meant something, and we lived within our means,
Right here in Vermont, where the barns used to be.
We once mended fences and helped neighbors in need,
Now the cost just to farm grows faster than seed.
The rugged, the stubborn, whose farms once thrived –
Are struggling hard just to survive.
Don’t give us progress if it costs all that we are,
You can’t plant your roots in an electric car.
Respect the old ways, the honest and rough,
Where folks made do, and enough was enough.
But I’ll hold on tight with all that’s in me,
The spirit of grit, and the will to be free.
This land. Our Vermont…
Where the barns used to be.
So shall we rise up, hand in hand?
A Rural Vermont Rising to save our land.
This poem, Vermont, is a love letter to you,
We may be down, but we are not through.
The barns are still here, and so are we!
It’s time once again for our state to be free.
Our future can be brighter than ever before,
Come back to the land, throw open the door.
Young men and women, come put down your roots,
Raise a family, work the land, and harvest its fruits.
For Vermont is a place where most anything grows,
Work the earth with your hands into long, fertile rows.
So come raise up a barn where an old one has been,
And breathe life into these valleys and mountains again.
Let the church bells ring and the old Granges thrive,
Let the fields fill with cattle, keep the family farms alive.
There is work to be done, a Vermont Promise to keep,
For the land that we love, and the roots that run deep.
The barns are still here, and so are we!
And tomorrow can hold what we dare to see.
So take hold of this land, let a new chapter begin,
For Vermont isn’t finished. We’re just starting again.
The Murray family owns and operates a 200-year-old farm in Weathersfield, Vermont, where they raise beef cattle and chickens, produce food for their community, and support local food shelves. Andrea Murray is a candidate for the Vermont State Senate, representing Windsor County, Pittsfield, and Thetford. August Murray serves as one of five members on the USDA Farm Service Agency State Committee for Vermont.