Following is the location link to Hess Family Blog, A Year on Monona. The entry below is the first for this blog and also found on new site.
http://ayearonmonona.blogspot.com




"After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds,
After the white-gray sails taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad myriad waves hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship..."
–Whitman, from After the Sea-Ship















After the Rainstorm


After the rainstorm, out on the river, forever flowing,
after the rainstorm the brown river bay is rising
up and swallowing the rocky edges, falling, roiling,
as the fish float under then up to strike the swollen bugs,
there goes the boatman out from the safety of harbor
under the long sheets of slanted rainstorm falling,
as he slips his poncho hood over and seals his pole
under tarp, wet and hanging, as the engine gurgles and roils.
After the rainstorm, out on the river, forever flowing,
the Sandhill Crane stands as stoic as ever, waves rising
in among the pushing and pulling of the long grass flooding,
he moves forward into the sheeted wind the beak
and pecks down into the dull murky water a silver minnow.
After the rainstorm, out on the river, forever flowing,
the world is wet to its bottom as the boatman sings
out and lets out a puff of smoke under his hood smiling.