Picture Notes

It’s nice to be in Florida and be reminded of all the good times I’ve had here. I think it’s the perfect weather of April and the open sky and the sea that brings it all back. This photograph is a great example of what I like about Florida. It’s people experiencing a part of Florida they may never see, although this is an artificial environment created by scientists and elected officials and people who see Florida as a way to make a living. I’m in the heart of of the City of Tampa which has Tampa Bay stretching out 30 miles to south until it reaches the open Gulf of Mexico. Tampa Bay used to be so full of fish that those who saw the area suspected you could walk across Tampa Bay on the backs of the fish. This aquarium was created and the water being used here doesn’t come from Tampa Bay but off-shore, in the deep Gulf of Mexico. It’s all good though and I’m sure most visitors don’t bother to snorkel or dive to see a reef and the diverse life that’s hidden from view. And now they can experience another alien world and not get wet or tired.

Live Line Fishing

downward spiraling
luminescent spinning
silkworm threads of monofiliment
floating to the depths,
panicking life with
shimmering waves of
oblique memories,

finally settling,
a pillar of connectedness
between heaven and hell,
air and water, life and
death, within memories
of time - a riotous thing
living in someone else’s
memory,
scraping the bottom
of the world with bait.

I was born in Florida and spent most of my life there. I recently went through my files and found a folder called “Fishing Poetry” and it contained things I’d written when I lived there and spent all my free time fishing. Too much time in the sun, you ask? I don’t know, I thought I’d post the ones I like here. It’s part of the previous post, “Candy in our Lives”.