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Willowspout

By R. T. Smith b. 1947

Because someone thirsty enough

to trust Old Testament wisdom

followed the deepening greens

and found a spring, silver

in the shadow of blue ridges,

I can kneel beneath

this spill of willow

limbs a century later

and drink water

risen from roots

to enter the evening

through a spout, the way

Cherokee stories say the first

people were born,

washing into the world

of such trees whose bark,

like the water I cup

to my parched mouth,

tastes leafy and sweet

and has the power,

the old ones say, to heal.

Source: Poetry (May 2001).

Biography

Poet R.T. (Rod) Smith was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Georgia and North Carolina. He earned a BA in philosophy from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and an MA in English from Appalachian State University. His collections of poetry include From the High Dive (1983), The Cardinal Heart (1991), Hunter-Gatherer (1996), Trespasser: Poems (1996), Split the Lark: Selected Poems (1999), Messenger (2001), Brightwood . . .

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