Well Bottom Blues

After Gary Snyder

On the porch of a cottage on a pond by Coulée Ditader just above Bayou Teche St. Martin Parish, Louisiana

13 February 2026 8:00 a.m.

I overslept the quiet alarm
I set to not disturb Patrice
It’s a gray morning anyway
so what if sunrise slinked past
If I I had been awake
gone in just now for another cup
I’d have missed the anhinga
cracking a crawfish on the log

§

This other realm, a cottage on a pond just the other side of the double-wides from town, holds the calm of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn from The Wind in the Willows. We burrow into it.

~§

“Listen to the water sing sweet songs to rock my soul”
—Robert Hunter

Realm is quite a claim
but coming from the city
home a stone’s throw from
the discordant interstate
we have escaped to a place
turtle-still yet noisy with birds
with nothing to do but be

§

I’ve never seen someone solo paddle
a duck boat  It’s a squiggly thing without
the body of a canoe or a keel  Next door
someone finally drops a line into water
I’ve seen them biting   the tiny concentric
ripples gradually returning to still water
a Zen bullseye with a perfect Nothing center

§

Last day No plans
Circle the pond again
Read  Lunch  Nap
Less is better  Release
like you’ve captured
that distant station
Listen to its song
Center focus the eyes
Let the world encircle you
Unconditional Surrender