At the River<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From Mary\u2019s Peak the valley\u2019s slow descent<\/p>\n
to southward gave our river sweeping wide<\/p>\n
meanders. Six or seven miles it went<\/p>\n
to cover two or three, from side to side.<\/p>\n
Around the stones and over fallen trees<\/p>\n
I heard it breathe a languid vowel that fell<\/p>\n
from snowfields, sounds suspended through the freeze<\/p>\n
of winter, whispered now as if to tell<\/p>\n
the secret cold to every lowland field.<\/p>\n
Along the banks the trees in colonnade<\/p>\n
traced out the vein of water they concealed.<\/p>\n
On August evenings families sought the shade<\/p>\n
to picnic there, and on the hottest nights<\/p>\n
brought cots and strung their tents from lines between<\/p>\n
the trees. I lay and watched their lantern lights<\/p>\n
blink out upstream and down, then from unseen<\/p>\n
encampments heard their voices droning low,<\/p>\n
inhaled the scents of cattle, cedar, hay.<\/p>\n
Beneath it all I heard the river flow,<\/p>\n
forever saying what it had to say.<\/p>\n
The farms where all the people lived are gone,<\/p>\n
the people gone to graves \u2013 or town. The land<\/p>\n
lies fallow. Yet the river murmurs on,<\/p>\n
some days in words I almost understand.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard Wakefield<\/a> has been a reviewer and critic for the Seattle Times since 1985 and has taught writing and American literature at various colleges in the Seattle area since 1979.\u00a0 His first collection of poems, East of Early Winters,<\/em><\/a> was published by the University of Evansville Press and won the Richard Wilbur Award in 2006.\u00a0 His collection A Vertical Mile<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>was published by Able Muse Press in 2012.\u00a0 He and his wife, Catherine, live in Federal Way and have two grown daughters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the River From Mary\u2019s Peak the valley\u2019s slow descent to southward gave our river sweeping wide meanders. Six or seven miles it went to cover two or three, from side to side. Around the stones and over fallen … Continue reading