from Paean to Place
River rising—flood
Now melt and leave home
Return—broom wet
naturally wet
Under
soak-heavy rug
water bugs hatched—
no snake in the house
Where were they?—
she
who knew how to clean up
after floods
he who bailed boats, houses
Water endows us
with buckled floors
You with sea water running
in your veins sit down in water
Expect the long-stemmed blue
speedwell to renew
itself
O my floating life
Do not save love
for things
Throw things
to the flood
ruined
by the flood
Leave the new unbought—
all one in the end—
water
I possessed
the high word:
The boy my friend
played his violin
in the great hall
On this stream
my moonlight memory
washed of hardships
maneuvers barges
thru the mouth
of the river
They fished in beauty
It was not always so
In Fishes
red Mars
rising
rides the sloughs and sluices
of my mind
with the persons
on the edge
—Lorine Niedecker
SHARKPACK Poetry Review 