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tree meditations and others 245
How I went downstream
Barefoot, astonished
By the pain! each small
Rock made its own pain --
How slowly that pain
Drove back the idea
Of a pleasant walk
Barefoot to that pool
Downstream; how I caught
Two fi ne trout while each
Move I made meant pain;
How the log had spurs
On it, like pinpoints,
Entering my bare feet
When I came back; how
In midafternoon,
Tired, I took my last
Good trout, at a bend
In dark blue shadow,
Under a rock ledge;
How then I rested
In some tall grasses,
How they hissed loudly
With the gusty wind
While I on the ground
Lay in still air; how
I thought of sleep, slept;
And woke in changed light,
Glare and shadow strange
On the water -- late
Afternoon now! How
Fishing back upstream,
Seeing the water
From the other way --
Alien -- chilled me;
How in my fatigue