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Published: Thu Apr 15 1999
Eva Lundsager, Were now like (detail), 2021, oil on canvas
Vermont Water

for Seamus Heaney


Vermont water tastes like sherry wine.

        —Traditional

We’ve had our soft days
hems of rain sashaying
across the roof…muffled paradiddle . . .
the big pine’s brush lifted
flung down scattered dots
and the mist seen,
the air alive, but unheard.
Rain beads on the cattle bar,
not here, but in Wicklow
where you pointed out the droplets
poised and falling, beautiful.
Water is your sign. What pours
forth from jug and drain, voluble
life-giver, free to do as it pleases
until it pleases. Here water goes
underground to be dowsed by those
whose forked sticks spring downwards.
Springs chill lake swimmers:
we walk on rivers every day
you can feel the six or eight gallons
the well driller Manosh-By-Gosh
will bring to the surface, last week’s
rain from every faucet in the house.

See what's inside AGNI 49

William Corbett (1942–2018) was an American poet, essayist, editor, and publisher. He served as a contributing editor of AGNI for many years.

Corbett’s New & Selected Poems was reviewed in AGNI 43 by Michael Palmer.

Corbett’s memoir Furthering My Education was reviewed in AGNI 46 by Jeff Galbraith.

Corbett’s New York Literary Lights was reviewed in AGNI 48 by Jim Behrle.

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