Spent the morning chopping
and piling wood and then fished
the dusty afternoon alone.
Fished as the sun dipped
behind the trees.
Fished as the dark came on.
I didn’t catch a damn thing,
but looking up from the river
now and then,
seeing those blue mountains
and hearing the faint, distant sounds
from the road a few miles back,
I realized that all ofmy yearning
and suffering had dissipated
and that it was nice to be far away
from everything -- and myself.