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Poetrie: Fishing on the Susquehanna in July

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by Billy Collins

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia

when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna

sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.
Words 1 through 27 of 27
fishing   has been listed 3 times with 1 comment
honest   has been listed 11 times with 2 comments
pleasure   has been listed 18 times with 0 comments
quiet   has been listed 32 times with 2 comments
painting   has been listed 2 times with 0 comments
woman   has been listed 17 times with 6 comments
tangerines   has been listed 1 time with 0 comments
sensation   has been listed 10 times with 0 comments
doubt   has been listed 8 times with 1 comment
upstream   has been listed 2 times with 0 comments
wooden   has been listed 4 times with 1 comment
oars   has been listed 1 time with 0 comments
drip   has been listed 16 times with 1 comment
museum   has been listed 10 times with 1 comment
egg   has been listed 32 times with 0 comments
curled   has been listed 2 times with 0 comments
cloud-ruffled   has been listed 1 time with 0 comments
bandanna   has been listed 3 times with 1 comment
flat-bottom   has been listed 1 time with 0 comments
whip   has been listed 10 times with 0 comments
unlikely   has been listed 1 time with 0 comments
blink   has been listed 20 times with 19 comments
haystacks   has been listed 1 time with 0 comments
whitening   has been listed 2 times with 0 comments
hare   has been listed 4 times with 0 comments
wired   has been listed 9 times with 0 comments
springing   has been listed 3 times with 1 comment
Words 1 through 27 of 27
comments for this list
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about 1 year ago reesetee said:

I fixed it--see the "new" version. :-)

about 1 year ago alguien said:

There's no link to this list, so you have to get to it in a roundabout manner. Maybe removing the Wordie-link on Poetrie will fix it?

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