Something fishy about National Poetry Month?

As I hope you know already, April is National Poetry Month. If you’re a repeated reader of this blog, you may have noted that I’m a trout fisher. That combination makes me absolutely delighted to share the following from the Minnesota Trout Unlimited monthly newsletter that arrived in my email inbox this morning:

The Last Cast
It's National Poetry Month and we're looking for your favorite and original flyfishing poems to share! Submit yours here. Our longtime Trout Unlimited Minnesota print newsletter contributor Larry Gavin shared this recording of himself reading Vespers: Pine Creek with us. Enjoy! 

dry flies hook anglers before they hook trout

Photo by J. Harrington

I’ve been a member of TU for decades and consider the recognition of National Poetry Month by the state council of a national cold water conservation organization to be one of the healthier developments since the first Earth Day in 1970. Speaking of which, I hope you already have on your calendar that Earth Day is April 22. What are you planning to do to honor and celebrate it this year?

In addition to touting (no, I didn’t unintentionally drop the “r”) TU and Earth Day, as part of NPM I bring to your attention Larry Garvin’s A Fragile Shelter, a copy of which sits on one of my bookshelves. It was published locally by Red Dragonfly Press. Try it, you’ll like it, I bet. Here’s a sample of his work:

Christmas Morning South of Town

by Larry Gavin

 

A blue spruce, out of place here,

with bittersweet

twined on its south side—the vine's

orange fruit, autumn's promise,

still hanging like one final

question against blue sky.

On the north side's branches:

snow. Light, a “dusting”

they call it. Dusting.

Two cardinals decorate

the uppermost branches;

scarlet hosts searching

for food.

In the distance, three bells:

one on the collar of each beagle

busy sifting scent in wild raspberry

sumac and Russian olive

and, above the bells, the sound

of voices: mother, son, laughing

in knee-deep snow.

Which of these gifts do I deserve?

None of them, I think,

then I reconsider and realize

I deserve them all. Unasked for

and echoing down through

the years, years full

of gratitude and heartbeats

as one hound's plaintive voice

rises above all of it,

then two more. Simple as

the wishes we all hold dear.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.