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for Catherine
We called it
Scaling the Delaware
how we'd lie
on our stomachs
in the shallow
summer river
face upstream
and let the current
troll our bodies
out behind us
like flags
flapping
in our wake.
We probed
the silty bed
with bare fingers
for fissures
in the shale
fit to grip
and pull ourselves up
against the flow
climb
a horizontal waterfall
sky steep
at our backs
wind skiing
through our hair.
And there
at the peak
Milford
New Jersey
bluffs
and a gristmill
and a green bridge
spanning the water
like a finish line
with a gas station
on the PA side
though it was not
for either end
that we climbed
water
but for the avalanche
of sunlight
splashing toward us
and for the sheer
shad of it
together
against the rush
and tug of a river
going the other way.
© by John Smith.
Used with the author's permission.
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John Smith is a retired high school English teacher in New Jersey whose work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. The author of two books, Even That Indigo and All My Ghosts Are Here, John's poem, "Lived Like a Saint" was set to music by composer Tina Davidson for the choral work, Listening to the Earth. Another poem, "Birding," was commissioned by New Jersey Audubon for their centennial. In addition to writing poetry, John enjoys cooking, gardening, and keeping an eye on the birds.
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Wilda Morris:
"The avalanche / of sunlight" - just one of the lovely expressions in this fine poem. If children did that today, would their parents be arrested for child endangerment? It sounds like a marvelous way for a young person to live in the world.
Posted 07/06/2015 09:59 AM
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barbsteff:
Very sly poem!
Posted 07/05/2015 09:47 PM
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phebe.davidson@gmail.com:
Tremendously evocative! (enough to make me homesick--for my own earlier years, for Jersey, for the adults who used to rave about shad roe--and for Jersey itself). The NJ Parks Commission and Audubon have chosen well indeed!
Posted 07/05/2015 06:16 AM
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