Fisher King

PUBLISHED: August 20, 2015

The tall Fijian spears a giant turtle
And hurls him down upon the foaming breakers;
Then rides him over gardens green and fertile
Past huge marine toadstools and pepper-shakers.

What elegance in that superb design,
What native mastery of nerve and eye!
Along the shore, a plumed and nodding line
Of fine-ribbed, slender palm trees flanks the sky.

The waiting island there, an open leaf,
Hangs trembling on the waves, the heavens crack;
While breakers climb the bone-white coral reef,
Triumphantly he rides the ocean back.

So seeing him, I see again at dawn,
Beyond the wild blue boundaries of night,
His image, from the dark unconscious drawn,
Come shimmering and meaningful to light.

William Jay Smith

William Jay Smith served as the consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress, as the US Poet Laureate position was then called. He was the author of many volumes of poems, translations, children’s verse, and nonfiction works, including the memoir Army Brat. He was an emeritus professor of English at Hollins University.