In the Swamp
10:00PM May 18, 2008 in category 
by George W Frink
Somehow naturally, Columbus County swamps and snakes entered my twitter conversations with @lisamer and others.
With the North Carolina swamps came thoughts of Pat's [scroll down that page] poem which, with the author's permission, I promised to blog here.
Past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society, and a friend since we were at North Carolina State University together, @Pat Reviere-Seel included "In the Swamp" in her No Turning Back Now collection:
Why did you have to mention water moccasins?
You know I'm afraid of snakes, And here I am
up to my knees in muck. You know I never slept
that year the boa constrictor lived downstairs
your housemate's pet. It always looked hungry
You didn't sleep either, so maybe I'm being unfair
It's not that I dislike snakes. Truth is, I'm drawn
to their sleek, shiny bodies, the way they slither
along the ground like a silk rope. They could curl
around you like love and choke the life right out
or charm you clear out of your mind. Not that
snakes have much of a mind -- they're all long
thick muscle. No turning back now, we're half
way through. Nothing to do but keep following you.Copyright (c) 2004 by Pat Reviere-Seel
I agree with Archibald MacLeish, who wrote in "Ars Poetica":
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
For one son of the swamps and marshes who as a youth found in knee-deep, tea-brown water the peace to read and to write, this one abides like the stirring of cypress needles.
