(Flint River)
Goodness gracious, I've had such great responses to "Glorified" that I think I'll post another one from my new mss. This is titled "Night Fishing" and I think some of you may have seen it before. I had fun with this one, too.
NIGHT FISHING
I bait my lines
with the scent of old planks
rotting over the muddy Flint
River where drowsy snakes
coil in the rushes and lightning
bugs fizzle like spirits
of nightcrawlers nibbled
by minnows. No catch
in my throat but this aching
to wade into lazy black water
and stand all night long
in its leavetaking, calling
the fish home to Mama.
(first published in STORY SOUTH)
7 comments:
Another beauty -- love the scent of old planks and the fizzle of lightning bugs.
Takes me back to the slow, tannin-stained Florida rivers of my youth.
I'm looking forward to this new book of yours!
Thanks, Vicki. I hope it turns out to be a good enough book. These poems are from the 3rd section, which is lighter than the first two. The first 2 take on some thorny issues re the South. The second section is sub-titled, right now, Southern Fictions. I may post one or two, just to see what kind of reaction, if any, I get.
It reminds me of my grandparents' home in Mississippi. Glad you left out the skeeters . . . I'm looking forward to reading some of the Southern Fictions section.
Kathryn, had you not told me you were writing about the Flint River, I may have guessed it on my own! I live a mile from the Flint and many times I've dropped bait over the bank and sat with my toes smooshed down into the mud.
This was wonderful! Wonderful.
Jane, I don't want any skeeters in a poem, not yet. Maybe next year? I don't want them to feel left out!
Lynn, your blogs are great. I love the photos and the poems. And the "smooshing," yes, only a river girl would know how to call it! I'll have to tell you about my childhood trips to "the creek," just off the Flint, in Newton, Ga.
Kathryn ... that would be amazing to get your perspective on growing up by the river! It would be interesting to see how our childhood adventures compared! I really love your blog. It often brings me home without ever having to leave my seat!
Kay, I am taken with "Night Fishing." I take it, it takes me literally, for it is visual and sensual. It makes me want to go fishing at night. It also stuck me as a metaphor for trying to hook a poem.
And O I love this on-going conversation among poets.
Thanks.
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