I took a walk by the water this morning & it reminded me of my first published poem from 2004. My English teacher had brought in a Poet-in-Residence named Martin Steingesser and he helped me edit this poem when I was 16 years old. This Winding River No emotion ever steady unending like time. Tiring & slow summer spent wasted for money clams unmudded tired parents, sailboats dance on bright lights hot days, warm nights on hard pine-coned land. Summers of water babies jumping off with exciting surges of energy, feet leaving wooden planks. Seals and seagulls scatter. Freezing water: underneath, our world disappears. Nothing exists except the feeling of the water. Alewives journey watching spectators gathered sociably, the journey reminding us our feat: trying to get ahead, environment suppressing us. A life growing up in the salty air, motorboats bouncing, roaring. Wooden hods & mesh bags filled, collecting languid heat. All of the clam gathering for rich New Yorkers, the people in mad scrambles trying to taste a piece of our world. Our world of hot tired summers getting dirty and money. Tiring and slow suppressing with heat, you have to live here to know this winding river. #waterpoem #midcoastart #mainepoet #martinsteingesser