Agree with Doug, Max. Best parts are the remembered early sections centring on quickened turbulence on the Yarra.
Bill
On 19/03/2015, at 1:43 AM, Max Richards wrote:
> Lake and River
>
> O to be on Lake Union today -
> spring at its bluest - frost
> on parked-car windscreens
> evaporates fast -
>
> like those long-lost mornings
> I parked and went solo
> kayaking on the Yarra,
> while mists curved away,
>
> the valley warmed up
> and drifting on the current
> I felt so present
> in the slowing moment
>
> that the downstream rapids
> seemed to defer themselves
> absent-minded, till round
> a bend river narrowed
>
> quickened to turbulence
> tossed me about - left and
> right I fended off rocks with
> my double paddle, rushed
>
> through the gap and swerved
> aside to some easy shallows
> where wattle blossom powder
> floated on shadowed backwaters.
>
> Here, jet trails curve in the sky
> like albino rainbows
> above Queen Anne’s Hill
> and the Gasworks Park.
>
> I should go down where
> the Lake rowing club
> headquarters are -
> their webcam shows
>
> sunlit water where they
> put those slender boats in.
> Later today maybe
> from our window up here
>
> on North Capitol Hill
> we’ll see tiny eights pull
> out each with their coach nearby
> in a motorboat exhorting
>
> them encouragingly.
> Not long till their regatta -
> best viewed by binoculars
> perhaps from up here.
>
> Down at the lake will be bliss -
> the gulls are doing well
> just over there with some
> late-breakfast shoal
>
> agitating the water
> as if the fish want
> to give themselves up
> in the food chain.
>
> Down there yesterday
> beside the lake, senior
> Labrador and me,
> I had him momentarily
>
> tethered to various
> posts in the foreground
> while I snapped view
> after picturesque view
>
> of dog with pleasure craft,
> with seaplanes, houses afloat! -
> at the walkways between
> rows of houseboats,
>
> everything by or on
> water, blue sky above.
> Seattle Seaplanes’
> watch-dog woofed
>
> warnings to his mistress.
> She shushed him, admired
> my Lab, told us what bliss
> it was to fly their tour.
>
> She’s qualified to fly,
> but not commercially.
> In twenty minutes we’d
> enjoy an eagle’s view
>
> of Washington U,
> Bill Gates’ estate,
> Gasworks Park, the zoo,
> and much much more.
>
> O to be on Lake Union
> one spring day soon,
> taking off into the blue -
> our hundred-dollar eagle view.
>
>
> Max in springy Seattle
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