{"id":2459,"date":"2011-04-21T16:33:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T21:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2014-09-19T13:28:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T18:28:05","slug":"poets-and-poetry-with-a-mississippi-walking-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2011\/04\/21\/poets-and-poetry-with-a-mississippi-walking-stick\/","title":{"rendered":"Poets and Poetry: With a Mississippi Walking Stick"},"content":{"rendered":"

April is National Poetry Month, so it seems fitting to share\u00a0 the work of a few of our local poets each week.<\/em><\/p>\n

Richard\u00a0Stahl was born\u00a0and raised in Davenport.\u00a0\u00a0He graduated from\u00a0Central High School in 1957 and\u00a0later\u00a0taught English\u00a0there for 34 years.<\/p>\n

His award-winning poems have been published\u00a0 in many literary journals and appear in various anthologies. Mr. Stahl’s books include After the Milk Route<\/em> (1988), Under the Green Tree Hotel<\/em> (1996), and Mr. Farnam’s Guests<\/em> (2004).<\/p>\n

In 2001, Mr. Stahl was appointed the first Quad-City Poet Laureate, serving until 2003.<\/p>\n

With a Mississippi Walking Stick*<\/strong><\/p>\n

This river’s rhythms live
\ninside my sfot pine
\nleg, a crooked
\nbranch some backwater pulled
\ndown, nearly drowning its face,
\nbefore hte current listed it, peeling
\nit clean as a cane. This driftwood ran
\nthe channel until it grounded
\nIn my hand
\non Davenport’s levee,
\nbut it remembers the bends
\nand twists and whirlpools
\nof the river. This stick teases
\nmy shoulders
\nlike the heady fizz
\nof a Mississippi Highball.
\nMy fingers drink the sweep’s straight
\nhandle again, the hold I need
\nto work my lungs and shoulders
\nand river legs. No part of this stick
\nis straight. Some twists puff
\ninto knots. The bark has been skinned off
\nfor easier handling. As I walk back
\nto The Green Tree Hotel
\nasn wader
\nten feet away,
\nthe bottom
\nnoses down, closing
\nits fork
\nlike a divining rod,
\ndriving me
\nback to the river
\nand The Hotel
\nto wait
\nfor my next berth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

___
\n*From Under the Green Tree Hotel<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April is National Poetry Month, so it seems fitting to share\u00a0 the work of a few of our local poets each week. Richard\u00a0Stahl was born\u00a0and raised in Davenport.\u00a0\u00a0He graduated from\u00a0Central High School in 1957 and\u00a0later\u00a0taught English\u00a0there for 34 years. His … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[607,600,606,608],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-history","tag-dick-stahl","tag-poets-and-poetry","tag-richard-stahl","tag-with-a-mississippi-walking-stick"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-DF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5687,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/5687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}