August 2015
I have written poetry and short fiction all my life and published a lot of it. My day job is editor of a trade publication Illinois Racing News. I live on a small horse farm in northern Illinois with my husband and various animals. My latest book, "Ribcage," (from Glass Lyre Press) recently won the 2015 Kithara Book Prize. I also am an associate editor of FutureCycle Press and Kentucky Review.
What Takes Us Down
This is the place where trolls dwell
Beneath bridges that arch
Above turbulent waters, where
Trapped against pilings, a kayaker
Surrenders to foam, to the hoarse
Cries that seize his orientation,
Submerging a memory
Of a sunshot stream carelessly flowing
Under his paddle, how quickly joy
Can upend; the craft
Of imagination stall in a welter
Of thrash and silence.
This is the place where trolls dwell
Beneath bridges that arch
Above turbulent waters, where
Trapped against pilings, a kayaker
Surrenders to foam, to the hoarse
Cries that seize his orientation,
Submerging a memory
Of a sunshot stream carelessly flowing
Under his paddle, how quickly joy
Can upend; the craft
Of imagination stall in a welter
Of thrash and silence.
Editor's Note: In an email to me, Joan explained the origin of this dynamic poem... Some years ago, a kayaker was drowned trying to "shoot the dam" — caught in the whirlpool boil below the dam. Actually, two police divers were also drowned trying to rescue him. Remembering that incident inspired this poem--which, of course, is about much more than the event itself.
©2015 Joan Colby