Fish

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Fish Story

A poem must break to the surface
and nibble at light,
confounding refraction
and swallowing sense
at a sudden bite
with wide-mouth contraction.

A poem must be cunning
to avoid rhetoric flies,
anglers baiting with lies
must dart for white water and running.

If caught on the hook of meaning,
a poem must whirl and fight,
tugging and constraining,
alert for oversight.

Loose from the critical reel
a poem plunges once more,
moves beneath manifest current
outward from net and from shore. 

—George Steiner, poet, in The Paris Review, Issue 1, Spring 1953.

• Editorial Comment: Time to get Toad the boat ready to go (see below). Poetry at sea.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 
 

Toad the Boat








PeezPix. ted.pease@gmail.com

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. ted.pease@gmail.com. (Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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