River Sounds

The river gleams dully
between trees and gate,
tossing tethered boats,
setting ropes a-jingle as they wait
to be released among hissing reeds
and creaking willows.
A whistling whirr of wings
underscores a skein
of honking geese
unravelling across high
clouds, broken by the raucous cry
of a black-headed gull,
a permanent marker
in a grey March sky.

Kim M. Russell, 2017

River Sounds

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics – River

This Tuesday, Paul Dear is our guest host, with poems about rivers. He says that the river is a place of work and play, and it is also a metaphor for a journey. ‘River’ is a noun, but could also be used as a verb or adjective.

Paul has shared some examples with us, to get our poetic rivers flowing: ‘The River of Bees’ by William Stanley Merwin and ‘Ask Me’ by William Stafford.

57 thoughts on “River Sounds”

    1. One Sunday morning very soon the tractor with the winch will arrive and wake us up as it lowers the rest of the boats back into the water – then the fun begins!.

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      1. It looks like a lovely place to walk with a dog and Jasper would have been very happy going there every day. Sometimes we can see the face of an old friend in the clouds when we walk in special places xxx

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  6. My daughter lived on the Norfolk Broads with her family for a number of years and this so captures the memories of when I visited her … just love the ‘black-headed gull, a permanent marker’ , wonderful image captured right there.

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  9. This may, or may not be an actual view from your yard, but you make it so–all gray/grey, in damp slumber awaiting the rosy-cheeked maid of spring to kick start their masculine motors.

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    1. It’s definitely our view, Glenn, and I love it so much. This morning the sun is shining – an invitation to go out and walk by the moorings again 🙂

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  12. Oh such incredible images here Kim 😀 especially love; “A whistling whirr of wings underscores a skein of honking geese unravelling across high clouds, broken by the raucous cry of a black-headed gull,
    a permanent marker in a grey March sky.” Beautifully rendered.❤️

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    1. I’ve always loved boats and still like the idea of living on a barge – although I think I was influenced by that old TV programme with David Essex 🙂

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  21. Atlanta being landlocked, your words just soaked into me. I don’t see water much, except the rains and the flooding of streets, and no rivers around….so you give me a very physical report of a river….that goes beyond the physical description.

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      1. Nearest lake about 60 miles, and the coast about 325. Ugh. I have had a couple of plastic pools over the years, and I had a goose that just took over a standing pool….LOL! He would dive in and do black flips. One cat made his way around an inflatable pool with his teeth and claws…while my son was in it. I came out to a deflated pool and a kid mad at the cat. LOL!

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      2. We used to have a wonderful cat, called Max, who went blind in old age and kept falling in the river. Luckily there was always someone around to pull him out.

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  26. setting ropes a-jingle as they wait
    to be released among hissing reeds
    and creaking willows.
    A whistling whirr of wings

    A beautiful way, Kim of getting them all in a jingle of self-sounding movements!

    Hank

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