RE: NANFA-- fish poetry

Hoover, Jan J WES (HOOVERJ_at_wes.army.mil)
Fri, 21 Jan 2000 08:41:17 -0600

Lepisosteus spp. are usually ignored by the poets, but a friend of mine
found an old book with this in it:

"...And brooding there, the Devil, with the sole intent to mar,
Produced that foul abortion that we call the Billy Gar!

He took a slimy snake, and with a deft and devlish skill,
He fastened on some fins and then a long and saw-tooth bill;
Then breathing in its gaping jaws the instincts of a shark,
And the snarling, snapping malice of the cur without its bark,
He added the repulsiveness and the horror of the bat,
And a skillful, subtle blending of the vulture and the rat;
Then spat upon his handiwork - a loathsome, foul array,
And cast it in the waters there to lurk and prowl and prey..."

-- The Fable of the
Billy Gar
Phil Carspecken,
1922

-----Original Message-----
From: Whitlock, Steve
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 4:10 PM
To: 'nanfa_at_aquaria.net'
Subject: RE: NANFA-- fish poetry

I like this one better........and I bet Jay will too.

B. Mallory - Lonesome Coho

Oh Silver salmon far from your native Pacific;
You live a meager, cultured existence in the
lake called Michigan;
Yet you leap, frolic, and lark about;

Your adopted home is the creek of Thompson
and the shores of driftwood;
Your only friends are the Eagle, Osprey, and Bill;
And all they ask is to have you for dinner;
'Tis no wonder that you are the vanishing, lonesome Coho.

-----Original Message-----
From: Whitlock, Steve
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 3:05 PM
To: 'nanfa_at_aquaria.net'
Subject: RE: NANFA-- fish poetry

Here's one by Yeats.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Sailing to Byzantium - First verse


That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
-- Those dying generations -- at their song.
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever, is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unaging intellect.

(1927)

-----Original Message-----
From: Jay DeLong
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 2:41 PM
To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
Subject: NANFA-- fish poetry

Anyone know of any poems about NA fish or with poems with fish names in
them? Here's one:

On the white sand of the bottom
Lay the sturgeon, King of Fishes
There he lay, in all his armor.

Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

--
Jay DeLong
Olympia, WA

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/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
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