Beyond (poem by Sharon Henderson)

Chris

I wrote this poem at ZRG some time ago, before I started to read Away. And now, finding it in my journal, I am a little haunted. I am thoroughly enjoying the book.

 
Beyond

The old land steward
went down the river
beyond the bridge
beyond the dam
down through the rapids,
but the water spirit
knowing the danger beyond
hurled him under
and carved into his back
with raging rocks.


Sharon Henderson


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Hi Sharon,
Thanks for the ZRG poem. I don't know if it's overtly about my semi-disastrous kayak trip I wrote & posted about, or if it's just another of the many coincidences & synchronous events which occur with regularity there  ;  )

I'm pleased you are enjoying AWAY. I just finished SISTERS IN THE WILDERNESS, another must read for living where we do; but maybe read ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH first, if you haven't read it already.

peace & poetry power!
Chris ... & Chase Wrffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!  (thanks for the great poem!)   

p.s. my back still twinges daily from those sharp rocks
p.p.s. I'm posting this on my blog - hope that's OK?

Old Orchard - James Deahl

Old Orchard



         Purdy Country Literary Festival





The water mill’s been gone

three generations, perhaps longer,

but the Moira contains its music.

Frogs have taken over the old pond;

Joe-Pye-weed lines the river’s banks.

The reading over, the poets disperse —

some to the forest, others walk upstream

in search of the beaver dam.



A few apples ripen on the boughs

of an abandoned orchard

despite the late spring, the cool summer.

Mahler could have understood

such isolation while nurturing

his bittersweet 9th Symphony,

a work he would never live to hear,

his health failing, his wife unfaithful.



Mahler finally died never knowing

the great acclaim that was to come.

No one will pick these apples.

They will remain long into November.

If the Moira holds the mill’s song,

truly the silent branches of these

enduring trees embody all the grace

of the extended adagio that closes his 9th.






       James Deahl

         Set in ZenRiver Gardens (Moira River)