Art: Jessie Hall, @catcrimson
KIAMICHI RIVER DAM
What draws us to its roar
spewing the push
of a hundred-year flood?
Rowed plumes spray down to mist
splash to eddies and swirls
anglers in boats at safer distance
casting lines for tailrace stripers
swimming fin-to- fin with white bass.
These waters sing of their journey
from Pine Mountain through the Ouchitas
stocked with legends of Jean de la Harpe
traders, trappers, beavers and Choctaws
now gushing through the teeth of the dam
regrouping and resuming their flow
destined to join the Red River
winding its way to the Gulf.
About the author:
Robert Ferrier is a retired university research administrator living in Norman, OK. He received a BA in Journalism and an MBA from the University of Oklahoma. He has published a novel, The Witchery Way, at Amazon Kindle e-books at amazon.com. He has won the Norman Tree Photo contest twice. His photo, “Magnolia Morning,” was the cover of the Summer, 2016, Dragon Poetry Review. His photo, “Diagnosis in Stasis,” was the cover of the Fall, 2012, literary journal Blood and Thunder, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. His poems have appeared in Dragon Poetry Review, Oklahoma Today, Blood & Thunder, Crosstimbers, Westview, Mid-America Poetry Review, The Exhibitionist, Walt’s Corner of the Long Islander, and Red River Review. In 2007 the Norman Galaxy of Writers nominated him for Poet Laureate of Oklahoma.
Art: Jessie Hall, @catcrimson, @jessiehall80
In the artist’s words:
I am a fine artist and photographer who suffers with schizophrenia. This is reflected in some of my work. I am from West Texas and find solace in my art. Most of my abstract liquid fine art is done with acrylics, pouring medium and water mixed together. Then I pour them all over the canvas moving the canvas around and let the paint do most of the work.