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Through
my nose,
downstream
into my throat,
a salmon swims
in my bones.
She navigates
the damaged
ecosystem of my
body, slips inside
porous bones.
Like an engineer
fixing a faulty dam,
she lays her eggs
in the holes, the
hollow redds.
All night I feel her
undulations, the
arching and
reaching of back
and belly. I move
with the flapping
of her tail. Her
voice bubbles up
to the surface.
My ears swoosh
with water and
syllables. I hear her
calling her unborn
as once I called
my own. Pink with
the oily ooze of
salmon, her feathery
flesh, and wild with
desire for fresh water,
I swim upstream,
against the current,
through rapids
and estuaries,
as after long
absence,
I push for
home.
From The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement (Wind Publications, 2016).
Used here with permission..
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Diane Lockward is the editor of The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft and three earlier craft books: She is also the author of four poetry books, the most recent being The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement (Wind Publications, 2016). Diane, who lives in New Jersey, is the founder and publisher of Terrapin Books. Her awards include the Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, a poetry fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and a Woman of Achievement Award. Her poems have been included in such journals as the Harvard Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner.
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Wilda Morris:
Beautiful!
Posted 10/29/2021 11:10 AM
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Sharon Waller Knutson:
I am obsessed with this beautiful brilliant shape poem that flows as smoothly as the salmon swimming through the speaker's body. I love the metaphor of the salmon healing her bones. Wish I'd written it.
Posted 10/27/2021 09:09 AM
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Lori Levy:
Love the idea of a salmon swimming through your bones.
Posted 10/26/2021 10:25 AM
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Nicholas:
This is a gem of a poem. Thank you for sharing :)
Posted 10/26/2021 08:41 AM
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michael escoubas:
WOW! Superbly creative with particular sensitivity to the ruminations of the human spirit. This poem is "swimmingly" wise!!
Posted 10/26/2021 08:26 AM
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Larry Schug:
To me, this is a poem of being in touch with oneself. There are are, no doubt, other interpretations equally as valid. I enjoy poems that take me on a journey, some where outside myself as does "In My Bones"
Posted 10/26/2021 07:07 AM
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