For the pilgrims among us.

I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Travelling through this wearisome land
I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
And it’s not, not made by hand

Today’s poem from Writer’s Almanac is If I Were a Dog, by Richard Shelton. I found it moving, not just for his insight into being a dog but for his insight into the fetch of the human heart, and the long dark road.

Read the poem here, listen to Billy Collins. (He’s filling in for Garrison Keillor this summer.)

Today’s Writer’s Almanac poem, Walking in the Breakdown Lane by Louise Erdrich, is especially good. It confronts existence with a spare, unflowered style. I got the feeling she actually managed to write it standing by the side of the road. Which is hard to do.

I wanted to post something for Father’s Day. And I’m surprised that I’ve never posted this poem here on Metaphor before. I wrote The Fisherman for and about my Dad. It’s been published in a journal or two, and in my book Finding Oakland.

So this is for you again, Dad. Happy Father’s Day. Thank you for showing me that the best moments in life are elegant in their simplicity and pure in their quietude. Thank you, always, for literally everything.

THE FISHERMAN

is walking to the sea
at dawn in the purple
of a storm that passed on.
He turns to move on rocks
down to the water
at the base of the pier.

Seals sleep like dogs
in the wet sand, dreaming of men.
But a man will sleep in a moment
dreaming of waves that rise up
like lions digging graves
for the dead.

In the shadow of these cliffs
the day stays dark and cold
with a westerly breeze
on the back of his neck
and his net too small for stars.

So I am sleeping peacefully
dreaming of mountains and snow
while he fights his line
for the rise and fall
of silent seas and angry boats.
His life is a small fire
built to cook fish.

The Fisherman by Kyle Kimberlin
and the image above are licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Click the image to enlarge.