James Dickey: The Selected Poems

The Rain Guitar

THE RAIN GUITAR England, 1962 The water-grass under had never waved But one way. It showed me that flow is forever Sealed from rain in a weir. For some reason having To do with Winchester, I was sitting on my guitar case Watching nothing but eelgrass trying to go downstream with all the right motions But one. I had on a sweater, and my threads were opening Like mouths with rain. It mattered to me not at all That a bridge was stumping With a man, or that he came near and cast a fish thread into the weir. I had no line and no feeling. I had nothing to do with fish But my eyes on the grass they hid in, waving with the one move of trying To be somewhere else. With what I had, what could I do? I got out my guitar, that somebody told me was supposed to improve With moisture-or was it when it dried out?-and hit the lowest And loudest chord. The drops that were falling just then Hammered like Georgia railroad track With E. The man went in to a kind offishing Turn. Play it, he said through his pipe. There I went, fast as I could with cold fingers. The strings shook With drops. A buck dance settled on the weir. Where was the city Cathedral in all this? Out ofsight, but somewhere around. Playa little more Ofthat, he said, and cast. Music-wood shone, Getting worse or better faster than it liked: Improvement or disintegration Supposed to take years, fell on it By the gallon. It darkened and rang Like chimes. My sweater collapsed, and the rain reached My underwear. I picked, the guitar showered, and he cast to the mountain Music. His wood leg tapped On the cobbles. Memories ofmany men · Hung, rain-faced, improving, sealed-off In the weir. I found myselfplaying Australian Versions of British marching songs. Mouths opened allover me; I sang, His legs beat and marched Like companions. I was Air Force, I said. So was I; I picked This up in Burma, he said, tapping his gone leg With his fly rod, as Burma and the South west Pacific and North Georgia reeled, Rapped, cast, chimed, darkened and drew down Cathedral water, and improved. The Strength ofFields 151 ...