Tag: patapsco

curtz v bombadil

now we lose our river daughter
burrowing further down
thorium mobile radio nuclide
metamorphic rock
born
water lilies sun sinking
open hill living pool
years end down deep forest water
dark door opens wide
world self mend unborder

toxic pollutants and NOx at sunrise, south baltimore, patapsco
(in 2010 brandon shores and wagner stations began releasing over two million pounds of toxic pollutants per year onto south baltimore, who remains in the ninety-ninth percentile in the u.s. for exposure to toxic releases–NOx from burning the coal is also killing the chesapeake bay)

wileys waltz

sliding on water
cutting into semiliquid
flying on unbonded ice
in the ferry channel by empty anchorages
over shoals
by thomas cove
past points lookout wagners leading stony rocky sandy
moss goose pond
whitehall bay
onto the severn
around the frozen hemisphere

sweating river at sunrise
(1893 was one of the years when winter ice covered the patapsco and much of the chesapeake bay)

risingest town

warehouses around the water
tobacco and snuff
wheat and corn and flour and bread
sugar and rum
iron
paper and wool
oak and poplar and mahogany and spruce
tar and turpentine
orange juice and coconuts
rice and cotton
fish and furs and skins
pork and beef and butter and cheese
beeswax and candles
nails and boots and assembling ships.
baltimore bricks

warehouse at sunrise
(in 1799 almost 200 warehouses were clustered around the harbor)

zhujiang and patapsco

the eagle and dragon will become each other
only as snake and skunk
horse and hedgehog
goat and rabbit
monkey and moose
rooster and reindeer
dog and deer
pig and puma
rat and squirrel
ox and otter
tiger and wolf.
prosper

seagirt at sunrise
(captain o’donnell first arrived in baltimore town with a cargo of tea, china, silk, and satins from canton in 1785)

water lots

to the channel of the river
that penetrated a ledge
wharves of pine cord
one thousand feet.
named when it ran fast and cold
and the channel was glens and gorges
stretching from sunrise to sunset

old pier at sunrise
(in 1759 two landowners built wharves from gay and lombard streets to avoid the cost of buying a waterfront lot)

coles harbor

hills roll up and out
beyond the last reach of the sea
curled up,
the small green bones of mountain upon mountain
mashed and heaped from volcanoes and deltas and plains
then washed away.
hap hazard
timber neck
welsh adventure
diligence
mary borne
ridgelys delight.
a warren of plantations and farms in the hills around the harbor
with narrow roads through the marshes and woods

inner harbor at sunrise
(cole’s harbor, which would later be the area first incorporated into baltimore town, was first warranted in 1668 and was surrounded by several land patents and farms)

bole armoniack

summer is hot as in spain
winter is cold as in france
thunder and lightning purify the air,
in this place for industrious people.
just here no gold or silver with the iron ore
no way to sail to china
no forts or warriors to count.
but we thank you for the brass cross
and the wonderful map that showed so many the way

harbor at sunrise
(captain john smith explored the chesapeake, including the branches of the patapsco, in 1608 and published a map of the region)

tide covered with froth

along the shores
hunters came
killing with stones
and harvesting,
always walking.
settling where fish teemed,
cultivating and weaving and potting
carving and tanning and painting.
andaste were hunting to the north of this backwater
when a lone shallop
rose on the water with the sun.
and slipped quietly past

cove at sunrise
(humans ranged into the patapsco region more than 18 thousand years ago as the glaciers of the last ice age, which had reached northern pennsylvania, were receding–indigenous people were here when captain john smith explored the region in 1608)