A Communion of Water and Blood

By Bernard Fancher

A follow-up collection of poems continuing upon themes dealt with in "Before Dark, and After"--but concentrating more on the element of water than fire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bernard Fancher
• Release date: Feb 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465723109

Bernard Fancher

I live on a small and mostly defunct farm in western New York, where the events of a typical day include writing and walking my dogs--items not necessarily listed in order of priority. (At least not from the dogs' point of view.)

Book preview

A Communion of Water and Blood

Selected Poems

by

Bernard Fancher

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 by Bernard Fancher

All rights reserved

This ebook is licensed by Smashwords, and may not otherwise be disseminated

without the author’s permission.

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Table of Contents

A Communion of Water

Interlude

On Wiscoy Creek

River Twin

How to Write a Poem

Long Shadows Farm

One Morning

Pretty, Met Only Briefly

Portage

Six Mallards

The Sky is Green

Afterlife

Waiting in an Open Doorway

Persevering

Words were First Tangible Things

Looking Through Glass, Darkly

October 19, 2009

Work in Progress

Prescription for Living

The Fall

The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge

Desire

Felicity

Regret

Before Valentine’s Day

Enchantment

Easy Way Out

Type

Imagining the Future without You

Inertia

Sacagawea

Plaint

Walking Barefoot Through Dandelions

Where a Poem Explains

This Moment

The White Fields

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A Communion of Water

I stand again over the surface on a narrow board walk,

Waiting as then for something hidden

To rise from within the still body of water below.

The rod moves, pinioned by my hand, lifting the plumb line,

My thumb stopping the action, bringing the bobber along in one drawn motion

In concert with the torpedo-shaped dropper, the whole shebang swinging out

Languidly, pulling the dangling worm helplessly to a place

Beyond the leading lead weight’s plopping reentry.

(Mid-flight, the bobber attempts to exert undue influence

Commensurate with its dimension, throwing everything slightly off kilter,

But I concentrate on the initial tug and release,

Imagining the free flight of the worm, absent all the intervening