Mother We Won't Forsake You
Bottle-necked At Great Mother Bay
oil on canvas
27 x 54"
2021
Inspired by Dr. Michael Salcman's poem, Mother of the Bay I painted his words:
"the snowmelt drains from far in the throats
of Adirondack creeks, adding fresh water to the mix
of ocean brack and grasses making up the Chesapeake:
a Susquehannock word for great river
where strange fish with hard coverings lay—unknowing
in giving a name to our Bay, praying for its survival.
To the poet read Mother of the Bay click: visionsversesvoices.com/Green-Night-of-…
1. First published in Connecticut River Review, 2006
first collected in Salcman's The Enemy of Good is Better, Orchises Press, Washington D.C., 2011
Reprinted & revised as above in Salcman's_Necessary Speech: New & Selected Poems_, Spuyten Duyvil, New York, 2022