This week’s poem, Daniel Lance Patrick’s “Because that’s what he did,” is a deep winter poem – an homage both to ice fishing and to an aging father. I love how intricately and yet how plainly the speaker describes the art of drilling, unspooling and waiting. I also love the subtly drawn portrait that emerges of a father and teacher who knows what it means to fish.
Patrick is a Maine poet, songwriter and musician. His poems have appeared in The Sandy River Review, The Northern New England Review, The Buffalo News and on NPR. He won an Emmy for his work during the London Olympics. He lives in Edgecomb.
Because that’s what he did
By Daniel Lance Patrick
your Father said ice is another world—
if you don’t have respect for it
sooner or later you’ll learn some.
tomorrow you’ll fish at sun-up
dragging both sleds alone across the lonesome
ice to your spot—one sled for the old auger
another for the balance of gear.
you drill five eight-inch holes thirty feet apart
then set the old traps and flags he gave you.
you clip the depth finder and let out the line
through the soft touch of your fingers
down through the holes into the saw tooth water
til it unspools no more, then ease it up—
eight turns on the reel, resting two feet above bottom.
you tie a loop in the line remembering the depth
then pull it all up and hook a minnow through
the fleshy fin on the shine of his spine—
not the mid-section, you want him alive.
you think of his old weathered hands
as you bait the hook—working without gloves
gotta feel the line
set your folding chair and wait
watch every trap for flags to pop
have yourself a beer
because that’s what he did.
you’ll take a picture
to show him what you caught
and if you catch nothing
it’s still fishing
which is more than catching fish.
Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Because that’s what he did,” copyright © 2020 by Daniel Lance Patrick, appears by permission of the author.
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