Zen and the Art of Speedskating

O to break loose, like the chinook
salmon jumping and falling back,
nosing up to the impossible
stone and bone-crushing waterfall –
raw-jawed, weak-fleshed there, stopped by ten
steps of the roaring ladder, and then
to clear the top on the last try,
alive enough to spawn and die.

I love those lines, Robert Lowell wrote them. I think Lowell is talking about freedom, pursuing desire, illogical sex drive, and the ability to really committ, to “break loose” (with the ten steps/ten commandments & your own failing self/raw jaw in the way).

Large fish are spawning in Cascadilla Creek that runs by my house. Inspiring and beautiful to see them struggling against each other in the shallows, and fighting the current.

They are not globe trotting salmon, but rather husky local fish, as long as my arm & quite solid. From my perusal of several fish guides, they are “Moxostoma Erythrurum” in latin, and that sounds more noble for the beauty I saw than calling them by their local names, “Golden Redhorse Suckers”.

Wanna see? here is the movie I took

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