"Fishing Pirene's Spring" Nick Pici

Fishing Pirene's Spring

Sitting on the banks
of an inchoate alpine stream,
under a lone pipal tree
of Parnassus' high meadowland,
the old graying man waits for the fish of imagination
to strike his bait,
knowing that near Pirene's Spring they dwell.

The old graying man sits patient, mostly,
waiting for the fish to take hold,
but occasionally tries with little tricks of his own
to coerce and seduce them to his line.

And even though the old man tires more easily now,
he is kept awake by the obscure sounds
of the delicate swim-dance
beneath the current,
the sounds of the fish he knows so well:

fish of unearthly contrasts
      scarlet on gold, and azure-streaked white, and pure electric blue
and those of color-void
      grays on top grays on top unseemly blackness
those with smooth, stream-lined bodies
and those with course, thorned armor;
those with graceful, mast-like fins
and those without, eel-like and sleek;
those with haggard, worn-out eyes
and those with sharp, piercing glances:

Many fish of many forms and many effects
but the old graying man is no longer very particular
because they all raise him up and keep him from sleep.
And sometimes it is just the fishing that counts,
and knowing that somewhere near Pirene's Spring they dwell.

notes --
Pirene's Spring: fountain from which the muses drank
Parnassus: sacred mountain of Apollo and the muses
pipal tree: type of bodhi (fig) tree of Oriental mythology

© 1998 Nick Pici, all rights reserved
appears here by permission

Author Notes

           Beginning with a stanza that pays tribute to the stylistically-distinct opening lines of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, "Fishing Pirene's Spring" is an allegorical poem about the struggles and triumphs of the artist. This poem, through its meshing of Eastern and Western myths, also examines the global community's need to bridge cultural gaps and demonstrates the richness and relevancy of myths across cultures.

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