The Today Show, Wisconsin River Version with Sun

The river flows, heavy and slow, under the moving air As more gulls ride the air above the water, Whose north bank now is touched by the sun Which has risen above the white pines behind Where we sit watching the world begin to happen. Egrets just passing through stalk the shallows Whiter than innocence, stabbing and spearing at fish Which are passing into their winter daze, slowing down As the river flows, heavy and slow, under the moving air And more gulls ride the air above the water Till the two great herons do their slow flyover inspection Necks in a flat S and legs streaming out behind them And flap their majestic way on up the river And the sun now is washing the bank, drenching it And a gabbling honk of geese float into view, Doing their slow graceful fall out of the sky Like prehistoric jets till, fifty feet above the water, The pattern breaks and it's every goose for itself For the landing, and one fears chaos, crashes, comedy Till, with a quick grace beyond grace, each feathers its wings, Almost pausing in midair, then softly slips from air to water, And down, they paddle toward the infrared bank, Gabbling and honking their irrelevant opinions on everything as The river flows, heavy and slow, under the moving air And more gulls ride the air above the water, And more geese come, falling in waves now, Called by the others till the sun-soaked river bank Is breathing with them, quiet now, seeming almost somnolent As they soak up the slow fire of the sun now moving out Across the water toward us, breaking the deep slow flow Into hard sparkles of light that semaphore even more geese And then, eventually, sooner or later, they start to depart For wherever it is they are going today, some it seems Just fifty yards up or down the river to see what's up there While others rise from water to air to higher air and unseen winds They'll ride for fifty miles before they look down again Working through their alphabet of flight plans - their W, P, Wavery S and a host of Chinese ideograms till suddenly Smoothly they're in the V that tells them where they're going And they're gone, but more will come, ever and ever, As more gulls ride the air above the water while The river flows, heavy and slow, under the moving air.

— George Sibley © 2007