LAKES, RIVERS, SEA\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (rsponse to prompt 12)<\/p>\n
“I am haunted by waters.” Olivia Laing, To The River<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have never trekked the Ouse, never<\/p>\n visited the riverside, Sussex home<\/p>\n of Virginia and Leonard, never felt<\/p>\n river and sea merging at Newhaven.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But I, too, have been haunted<\/p>\n by waters. \u00a0Six weeks old, I was<\/p>\n packed up and stashed in a woven<\/p>\n basket; carried to Burt Lake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The lake where I learned to fish \u2013<\/p>\n perch, sunfish. Where I learned<\/p>\n to respect the power of water<\/p>\n (storms, shipwrecks, lost sailors),<\/p>\n <\/p>\n learned to catch, skin, and fillet<\/p>\n fresh catch for supper. \u00a0And to fear<\/p>\n the sturgeon swimming in deep waters<\/p>\n under our small aluminum boat<\/p>\n <\/p>\n with its 5hp outboard motor.<\/p>\n Have spent years skating on frozen<\/p>\n rivers, startled by its deep cracking<\/p>\n like gunshot, and fish embedded<\/p>\n <\/p>\n in ten-foot thick ice.\u00a0 Skated for miles<\/p>\n and hours, whisper singing, I wish<\/em><\/p>\n I had a river I could skate away on,<\/em><\/p>\n and almost succeeded, but the sharp cold<\/p>\n <\/p>\n always brought me home,<\/p>\n I have moved inland and thirsted \u2013<\/p>\n no sea, few lakes.\u00a0 But mountains<\/p>\n kept me company, their streams<\/p>\n <\/p>\n babbling and gurgling<\/p>\n in tune with blood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Book: To The River, <\/em>Olivia Laing<\/p>\n First line: “I am haunted by waters.”<\/p>\n Last line:\u00a0 “We crossed the river then and pulled away, and in the empty fields the lark still spilled its praise.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LAKES, RIVERS, SEA\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (rsponse to prompt 12) “I am haunted by waters.” Olivia Laing, To The River I have never trekked the Ouse, never visited the riverside, Sussex home of Virginia and Leonard, never felt river and sea merging at Newhaven. But I,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71543,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71506\/revisions\/71543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}