Updated: Jul 25, 2019
In the Open Space of a Crawfish Pond
a whooping crane chick pecks its way
through acres of shallow water,
bigger than you’d think and unmistakably
new. Its parents bellow in the distance
to warn it of motors rumbling
near the banks, or fishermen casting
from the reeds. Here now, and safe,
it will grow tall on crawfish
before flying away to find a mate
of its own. It’s easy, now, to think
of this pond full of chicks
in ten years, when months ago
there was only flat land and warm breeze.
City of Nature
—Kota Ezawa, 2011
Wind noise and water flow,
bird calls, violins,
hawks gliding on currents,
squirrels in trees, rain drops
falling from leaves, insect screech,
banjo, mountain peaks,
river bank to ocean tide,
shark fin, sunset,
mist through sky, repeat—
nature through the prism
of movie sound— Deliverance,
Twin Peaks, First Blood, Jaws.
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Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. His latest collection is No Brother, This Storm (Mercer University Press, fall 2018). He is currently serving as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.