A feeling of homesickness creeps in! 'Gasworks Park' now that's a great
name!thanks for picky cheers P 76+

-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 18 March 2015 14:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 'Lake and River'

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=