Poet as Fisherman 1

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POET AS FISHERMAN I fish for words to say what I fish for, half-catch sometimes. I have caught little pan fish flashing sunlight (yellow perch, crappies, blue—gills), lighthearted reeled them in, filed them on stringers on the shore. A nice mess, we called them, and ate with our fingers, laughing. Once, dreaming of fish in far-off waters, I hooked a two-foot carp in Michigan, on nylon line so fine a fellow-fisher shook his head: "He'll break it, sure; be' 11 roll on it and get away." A quarter-hour it took to bring him in; Back-and-forth toward my net, syllable by syllable I let him have his way till he lay flopping on the grass-- beside no other, himself enough in size: he fed the three of us (each differently) new strategies of hook, leader, line, and rod. Working well, I am a deep-water man, a "Daredevil" silver wobbler my lure for lake trout in midsummer. Oh, I have tried the moon, thermometers-- the bait and time and place all by the rule-- fishing for the masterpiece, the imperial muskellunge in Minnesota, the peerless pike in Canada. I have propped a well-thumbed book against the butt of my favorite rod and fished from my heart. Yet, for my labors,

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Poem written by Emanuel in 1986, typewritten. He addresses feelings of resilience through uncertainty. (Page 1)

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  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    382 kB
  • container title
    James A. Emanuel Papers
  • creator
    James A. Emanuel
  • issue
    BOX 5 FOLDER 5, Deadly James, draft A, 1981-1990 (2 of 2)
  • rights
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • rights holder
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • version
    9/18/1986