Poetry
52 pages
5.5" x 8.5" single signature Japanese stab binding with die cut cover
Published November 2015
This collection takes inspiration from a series of paintings that can be found at The Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY. Each of the forty panel-paintings by artist Matt Ernst, collectively entitled, Elk Lake Guideboat Series, depicts the bow of a guideboat, a vessel which has long been used by travelers & their guides in the Adirondack Wilderness. An earlier version of the poem is archived at The Adirondack Museum.
The chapbook contains a sequenced poem accompanied by a few pen sketches. Each section has a quiet, contemplative tone that builds to the ending:
4
To return
a too young trout to lake:
hold it in the water & open your hand.
Gently shuffle
back & forth.
Our Grandfather calms the fish.
Drawing lake over bright gills
begs the fish,
live.
Still, it swims away slowly,
as if afraid
or in love.