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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WILLOWSPOUT, by RODNEY THEODORE SMITH Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Because someone thirsty enough / to trust old testament wisdom Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, R. T. | |||
Because someone thirsty enough to trust Old Testament wisdom followed the deepening greens and found a spring, silver in the shadow of blue ridges, I can kneel beneath this spill of willow limbs a century later and drink water risen from roots to enter the evening through a spout, the way Cherokee stories say the first people were born, washing into the world of such trees whose bark, like the water I cup to my parched mouth, tastes leafy and sweet and has the power, the old ones say, to heal. Copyright 2001 by The Modern Poetry Association. This poem appears in the April 2001 issue of Poetry Magazine. http://poetrymagazine.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 5 by JAMES JOYCE THE KING'S THRESHOLD by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS CONSCIENCE AND REMORSE by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SEAWEED by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY by WALT WHITMAN OPEN MY EYES by ALICE E. BAILEY TO NATURE by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |
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