The Plight of the Fisherman

Former poet laureate ted hughes was an avid fisherman who fished pike and salmon from the rivers in ireland, the k and as far awayas canada. Ted would fish the rivers not far from my home for salmon where the fish could, he said, grab at you and be grabbed. I'm not convinced ted would find the same grabbing salmon to day. And this great environmentalist would, i'm sure, have much to say about the empty rivers in astorias. But those rivers, those empty rivers, have radicalized me. Often i feel the earth cries, but we do not listen, or rather, we do not have the ears to hear it any more