Hopkins Fishes the Elwy
for Peter Thabit Jones
The creel leaned in the thicket,
rickety, too modest for sound;
the line cloud-drifted its way to the outbank
and sank, neither ripple nor root
pockmarked the surface,
the cast was that perfect, only
a long wisp and slip: the sound of some daft
insect.
The morning too early for matins, dawn's
flickering wingbar along his shoulder,
and with the heart's ivy-patience
he waited, certain a trout would take the fly,
already feeling the tug of the line, the ever-so-
slight winch in the wrist, so much like that time
between the raising of the Host
and the breathless taking in.
rickety, too modest for sound;
the line cloud-drifted its way to the outbank
and sank, neither ripple nor root
pockmarked the surface,
the cast was that perfect, only
a long wisp and slip: the sound of some daft
insect.
The morning too early for matins, dawn's
flickering wingbar along his shoulder,
and with the heart's ivy-patience
he waited, certain a trout would take the fly,
already feeling the tug of the line, the ever-so-
slight winch in the wrist, so much like that time
between the raising of the Host
and the breathless taking in.
Page(s) 15
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