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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WILLOWSPOUT, by RODNEY THEODORE SMITH Poet's Biography
First Line: Because someone thirsty enough / to trust old testament wisdom
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, R. T.
First Line: Because someone thirsty enough / to trust old testament wisdom
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, R. T.
Because someone thirsty enough
to trust Old Testament wisdom
followed the deepening greens
and found a spring, silver
in the shadow of blue ridges,
I can kneel beneath
this spill of willow
limbs a century later
and drink water
risen from roots
to enter the evening
through a spout, the way
Cherokee stories say the first
people were born,
washing into the world
of such trees whose bark,
like the water I cup
to my parched mouth,
tastes leafy and sweet
and has the power,
the old ones say, to heal.
Copyright 2001 by The Modern Poetry Association.
This poem appears in the April 2001 issue of Poetry Magazine.
http://poetrymagazine.org
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