Friday from the Archives: “Alligator Holes Down along about Old Dock” a poem by A.R. Ammons in NCLR 1993
We hope to see everyone at the R.A. Fountain General Store, owned by purveyor Alex Albright and his wife, on February 14th for the A.R. Ammons 100th Birthday Celebration and BBQ! We’re including copies of our 1992 issue, featuring a different Ammons poem, in the commemorative birthday package available for purchase.
This poem, from our 1993 issue, speaks to Ammons longing to go somewhere he can’t. Apparently, “you can’t go home again” works in Eastern North Carolina just as much as in the Appalachians.
“Alligator Holes Down Along About Old Dock”
Lord, I wish I were in Hallsboro, over by the tracks,
or somewhere down past the Green Swamp around Nakina, or
traipsing, dabbling in the slipping laps of Lake Waccamaw:
how I wish I were over by Fair
Bluff where the old Lumber River snakes under overhanging
cypress-moss, black glass going
gleamy deep and slow, ‘gator easy and slow:
I bet a mockingbird’s cutting loose a Dido in wisteria
vine or mimosa bush over there right now: if I were
down by Shalotte, the fish fries, scrubby sand-woods,
the beach dunes nearby: or Gause’s Landing:
Lord, I wish I were home–those pastures–where I’ll
never be again: Spring Branch Church, South
Whiteville, New Brunswick: mother and father, aunts,
uncles gone over, no one coming back again.
Get ready for the party, grab a copy of the 1993 issue, and purchase one of Ammons’s books at Bookshop.org