Day 16, Poem-a-Day Challenge (a poem after Blue Bayou)
Here’s the prompt: Today’s prompt asks us to “imagine music in the context of a place, but more along the lines of a soundtrack laid on top of the location, rather than just natural sounds. Today, try writing a poem that similarly imposes a particular song on a place. Describe the interaction between the place and the music using references to a plant and, if possible, incorporate a quotation – bonus points for using a piece of everyday, overheard language.”
You can visit Napowrimo, Day 16, to learn more details. Meanwhile, here’s my poem, under the wire on Day 16 of the poem-a-day challenge for National Poetry Month, 2025!
Those Lonesome Fishing Boats
after Blue Bayou
On the green Lime Lake
where the lonesome fishing boats
slap the long low dock
while the clear waves wash
the flat grey stones. I’m pining
for a boy back home, carve initials
in the white birch trunk to
keep that southern boy of mine
in my heart near the limestone lake.
The clear spring lake, where my grandpa
built in his overalls and my grandma
dreamed in her pillbox hat &
I was lonesome all of the time
‘cause I left my baby behind.
White birch bark curled into delicate boats
like the Natives’ boats, when they
waited to get back home, a canoe
filled with fish, silver in the sun.
They were lonesome all of the time.
Shallow green, quiet waves,
rustling trees, sandy bottom rises
with our steps and fishing boats
slap against the long dock
in a rhythm with the voices
of my family in the distance, and
the smell of campfire smoke.
I’m going back some day
come what may to
the memories of the clear
Lime Lake and the White Birch bark
where I carved my baby’s name
since I left my baby behind.
Birch bark grown, covers over
my baby’s name now. Oh, some
sweet day, gonna take away
this hurting inside.
I’m going back some day
to the green Lime Lake.
Jacquelyn Markham ©4/16/2025
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