Feature > Poetry
Charles Simic

Charles Simic

Charles Simic is a poet, essayist, and translator. He has published some twenty collections of poetry, six books of essays, a memoir, and numerous translations. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Griffin Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2007 Simic was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. His New and Selected Poems was published in March 2013.
This is a haunting and original poem, one in which a man spends his whole life fishing in himself for something extraordinary. I like how Kurt takes that initial premise and expands it, so it becomes so much more, a poem about trying to find one’s soul and instead finding something vaster than himself that turns out to be his own death.


Fisherman

A man spends his whole life fishing in himself
for something grand. It's like some lost lunker, big enough
to break all records. But he's only heard rumors, myths,
vague promises of wonder. He's only felt the shadow
of something enormous darken his life. Or has he?
Maybe it's the shadow of other fish, greater than his,
the shadow of other men's souls passing over him.
Each day he grabs his gear and makes his way
to the ocean. At least he's sure of that; or is he? Is it the ocean
or the little puddle of his tears? Is this his dinghy
or the frayed boards of his ego, scoured by a storm?
He shoves off, feeling the land fall away under his boots.
Soon he's drifting under clouds, wind whispering blandishments
in his ears. It could be today: the water heaves
and settles like a chest....He's not far out.
It's all so pleasant, so comforting—the sunlight,
the waves. He'll go back soon, thinking: "Maybe tonight."
Night with its concealments, its shadow masking all other shadows.
Night with its privacies, its alluringly distant stars.

Poetry

Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn
On Kurt Brown...

Poetry

Thomas Lux

Thomas Lux
At the Blue Gates