Merrimack River Nows — selected - Jan 2014

Jan 1

ice sheets in continental collision—silver shards thrust-faulting into fantastic arctic mountain ranges—a geologic era now taking seconds

Jan 6

fog, like a conceptual identity, lifts, and the silver waterway is there, as it always is, open, spontaneous, and never the same river twice

Jan 14

rain falls, fog forms, and the river appears to disappear on the way out to sea—sometimes i get a great notion to jump in the current and be

Jan 15

scintillating ice stars in a sky of river

Jan 17

sparkling high water has made this low-lying reach a no man’s land—the yawp of geese, laughter of ducks, rushes of being

Jan 22

a tugboat fragments polar vortex ice—an eagle’s wings divine the mystic currents

Jan 24

stopping by the roadside on an open bluff above a frozen river in zero degree wind chill sunshine, i grasp the raw stillness—changing a tire

Jan 26
in the wind-swept mirror of perfect ice—eastern white pines

Jan 27

reflections on thin ice—shadows and light—an engine of wind—sounds like shattering glass—the scrape of a leaf—absolutely no one is here now

Jan 29

ice floes leaving the mouth of the river like words defining infinity

Jan 31

black and white notions relentlessly swarming in confusion—feeding the seagulls

Merrimack River Nows — selected - Dec 2013

Dec 1
hawk eye looks within the high slack tide mirroring a wild december sky and cries ten thousand miles of recognition

Dec 3
trawlers docked at the newburyport waterfront and a clear river running high tide blue back to its open mouth and the maw of the sea

Dec 6
king high tide swelling at the seam of low climactic shores

Dec 7
river keep on flowing, winter sun keep on lowering

Dec 10
first, three white swans appear on the river. then a light snow begins to fall

Dec 13
afternoon sun flashing on the first ice of the winter, vast slabs flowing downriver in the aftermath of deep tidal fracturing

Dec 19
an airboat maneuvers through an archipelago of ice floes—buffleheads dive beneath a photovoltaic array of suns—the winter solstice looms

Dec 20
ice floes riding tide upriver—loons diving toward reflections—eagle chasing eagle

Dec 24
above the lonesome christmas eve impassive river—three birds of prey

Dec 25
delicate blossoming ice like wild mercurial chrysanthemums

Dec 31
the graceful sail of another eagle, another year