Hello, chicks and chickadees. Spring is springing here, and I’m grateful for the new green. I’m so eager I’ve even bought a few kitchen herb plants, which is a hilariously optimistic endeavor if you know how bad I am at keeping flora alive. I’m starting with a low potential kill-count of three: thyme, mint, and chives. Ah, the eternal hope of April.
April is also National Poetry Month, as you may know, which is one of my favorite things to celebrate. Over the years I’ve noted the occasion in many different ways. Since 2009 I’ve shared poems that were paired with work by artists in a really cool local collaborative exhibit called Merging Visions. I’ll have a poem for 2018 too, “Strolling in Iambic Pentameter,” but this year’s isn’t until fall. For several different years I hosted poetry-centric blog series that did everything from teach sonnet writing to share recommend poems to analyze classics line by line. They’ve all been fun, but what to do this year?
The stars have aligned, because when I looked at my list I realized I’ve developed a pretty significant backlog of poems I’ve never reprinted. My normal M.O. has been to post a poem here after it’s been out for a while elsewhere so that more people can read it—especially for poems that were published in print editions only and can’t be found online. Somehow, I’ve let 19 of them build up in my queue. Gulp! Don’t worry, email subscribers, you won’t be getting 19 posts in your inbox this month. I think one/week sounds about right. 🙂
So I’m kicking things off this week with my first one: “Dragging the Waters.” But before I get to it, below, here’s a quick snapshot of my most recent posts elsewhere that you might have missed, all at LitReactor this time:
Just click the images to visit the respective posts!
And now, this week’s poem. “Dragging the Waters” was one of my earliest publications. It appeared in Issue no. 7 of an online magazine called Phantom Kangaroo in 2011. Since the ‘roo has gone under, I think it’s high past time to have the poem posted here. It’s a strange, haunting little creature, and I hope you enjoy it!
Dragging the Waters
“Keep looking!” she screamed
over the wind.
“Keep looking!”
Panic pitched her voice so high
I almost lost it
amidst the waves crashing
just beyond our feet.
“Yeh heard ‘er!”
the bearded man bellowed
from my right.
We drag ‘em again!”
and he pulled
his corner of the net
deeper,
me and my corner
trailing with it.
© Annie Neugebauer, 2011
Thanks for reading! Join me back here for the next few weeks to read more poems. Happy National Poetry Month!
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