American Life in Poetry
Here’s a poem by an Indiana poet, Shari Wagner, that has a delightful time describing the many sounds of running water.
Creek-Song
It begins in a cow lane
with bees and white clover,
courses along corn, rushes
accelerando against rocks.
It rises to a teetering pitch
as I cross a shaky tree-bridge,
syncopates a riff
over the dissonance
of trash – derelict icebox
with a missing door,
mohair loveseat sinking
into thistle. It winds through green
adder’s mouth, faint as the bells
of Holsteins heading home.
Blue shadows lengthen,
but the undertow
of a harmony pulls me on
through raspy Joe-pye-weed
and staccato-barbed fence.
It hums in a culvert
beneath cars, then empties
into a river that flows oboe-deep
past Indian dance ground, waterwheel
and town, past the bleached
stones in the churchyard,
the darkening hill.
Thank you for visiting Spokesman.com. To continue reading this story and enjoying our local journalism please subscribe or log in.
You have reached your article limit for this month.
Subscribe now and enjoy unlimited digital access to Spokesman.com
Unlimited Digital Access
Stay connected to Spokane for as little as 99¢!
Subscribe for access
You have reached your article limit for this month.
Subscribe now and enjoy unlimited digital access to Spokesman.com
Unlimited Digital Access
Stay connected to Spokane for as little as 99¢!
Subscribe for access
Oops, it appears there has been a technical problem. To access this content as intended, please try reloading the page or returning at a later time. Already a Spokesman-Review subscriber? Activate or Log in