I SHOULD HAVE FISHED WITH HERONS
I should have fished with herons,
scurried after the waves with plovers.
Honeysuckle might have sweetened my lips,
wind-bent spruce trees given shelter.
I could have sailed away in moonlight
when the sea played silver chords.
The stars still linger in my breath
those autumn nights when the air stings.
Memories lie among driftlogs on the shore,
glass floats from broken nets.
Geese pass by in the wakeful night,
the tide shifts to the moon’s measure.
I should have hunted with owls,
crept with fog over moist pastures.
The dew still gathers on my tongue
those mornings when I tell the earth my dreams.
—Richard Lemm. Dancing in Asylum. Pottersfield Press, 1982.
PEI poet laureate Deirdre Kessler selects a poem a month by an Island poet for readers of The Buzz.
