NaPoWriMo #9: Waters of the Usk

A bit of an unusual subject for today's NaPoWriMo poem, but it fits with the current theme of experimentation so why not? The subject is the River Usk, a river which flows through South Wales and out of Newport, and is famous for having the second widest tidal range of any river in the world.

Waters of the Usk

A slick of mud and soil
drained from the riverbanks
cascades from the hills
down to the wetlands,
the coils of the River Usk.

Cormorants patrol its waters,
diving for fish and eels
along the immovable mud-banks,
while terns and seagulls cruise
above the capricious tides.

Flying Hare

Waking up in the meadows,
I want to see what the fuss is.
Think I'll go to the riverbank
and see what's jamming.

The rabbits are by the water,
chilling with the ducks
and moorhens on the riverbank.
That's when I arrive.

I cross the bridge and join
the rabbits by the bushes.
It's a good place to relax
while the ducks do their thing.

I meet a few friends of mine:
Roving Otter, Father Vole,
Smoking Goose. We
kick back in the summer sun.

J. B. Mink cruises by, staring,
which petrifies poor Vole.
Mink swims away downstream.
Makes my ears twitch.

Somewhere on the meadows
the swallows and the skylarks
are singing a groovy symphony.
We go over to check it out.

(The video version of this poem is up on the YouTube channel at this link: http://youtu.be/54xxP1NK7os)