James Dickey Poem from Rachel (my love)

FACING AFRICA

These are stone jetties,
And, in the close part of the night,
Connected to my feet by long
Warm, dangling shadows
On the buttressed water,
Boats are at rest.

Beyond, the harbor mouth opens
Much as you might believe
A human mouth would open
To say that all things are a darkness.
I sit believing this
As the boats beneath me dissolve

And shake with a haunted effort
To come into being again,
And my son nods at my side,
Looking out also
Into dark, through the painted
Living shadows of dead-still hulls

Toward where we imagine Africa
To bloom late at night
Like a lamp of sand held up,
A top-heavy hourglass, perhaps,
With its heaped, eternal grains
Falling, falling

Into the lower, green part
Which gives off quick, leafy flashes
Like glimpses of lightning.
We strain to encounter that image
Halfway from its shore to ours:
To understand

The undermined glowing of sand
Lifted at midnight
Somewhere far out above water,
The effortless flicker of trees
Where a rumor of beasts moves slowly
Like wave upon wave.

What life have we entered by this?
Here, where our bodies are,
With a green and gold light on his face,
My staring child's hand in mine,
And in the stone
Fear like a dancing of people

Closed: Gone Fishing

Although you would never be able to tell from the safety of the Boucher home high on a hill, Ft Kent and a good portion of Aroostook County in Northern Maine experienced very significant flooding beginning yesterday. An above average snowfall combined with 3.5 inches of rain caused huge swelling of waterways and road washouts. The Fish river poured over its banks, flooding West Main St. and The St. John was very close to spilling over it's30 foot dykes.

Jon and I had this vision of us in hip waders lugging sandbags to protect the town from the invading waters. We called around to ask about the need for volunteers early in the morning to no avail so I went to work as usually. After about an hour of checking my email, I was told that I should start moving my office materials to higher areas. Now I work in a Wellness center that also houses a gym with treadmills, weight machines, bikes and elipticles that all had to be lifted up as well. I am assuming that this preparation is in advance of a possibility of flooding in the next few days....that is until I look out and see that Main street is already full of water and that the flood is starting to roll into our parkinglot. Jon had been on his way to pick me up from work but as no cars were being let downtown, he had park about a mile away. When we finally found each other we decided to take a look around and see if anyone needed help to escape the water. We helped one of the business owners to grab stuff from his office and then wandered around looking for other places to volunteer. We traveled by foot all over town looking for places where we could be of use. All that we really saw were people standing around and staring at the oncoming water and saying "Wow, that's pretty crazy." over and over again. We asked everywhere we could, and even went to the command center where all the Emergency Management people were sitting around chatting and eating sandwhiches. It was absurd. There was no sandbagging, there was no resistance to the water's movement...nothing. Every so often some trucks would dump some dirt next to the waters apprach hoping that it would stop it. Sometomes I think that's Ft. Kent's Mantra in fixing problems: just put some dirt on it and it'll be fine-even when that problem is far too much snow and ice or a flooding river....

I have yet to go back downtown to see what the damage is like at work. I think I will take the trip later today. It appears that no one was injured during this flood. Our thoughts go out to all the bussiness and families affected by this extreme weather. Ft. Kent is already a town that has its fair share of difficulties and the town, I think will take this pretty hard as many of the town bussinesses have been affected. I don't think we'll know the full effects of the flood until the water recedes in a few days.

Hope all is well. Send some good vibes up to the County!!! Be Well,
Kim