A Poem

Noted poet Larry Gavin was kind enough to share his latest work with the Gray Goat. Larry read his latest piece at the conservation award ceremony at the 2009 Greatwaters fly fishing expo, It was inspiring. Here it is!

Before Stepping

“The words stop but the meaning keeps going on.” Basho

Let it be the moment
before stepping into the water to fish.
Flies lined up in a box like
days on a calendar. A cigar
still unlit waiting: cows
the definition of bliss, graze along
the far bank like those things
in life we hope to never forget.
Be there in that moment.
Just before water presses and
chills against legs. The gentle
pressure of time passing.
Wait a moment and study rocks
or insects diaphanous as the skin
on a girl’s wrist, and the sky
so blue: and high, and clear,
and bright. Let it be the moment
before stepping off the bank
from solid ground to gravel
and sand, and the muck we originally
crawled out of, into a new world
that contains our better self. And
let that world last for our
own particular kind of forever.

Larry Gavin