Listen to Michael Garrigan read “In Last Light We Drive to the River,” published in Shō No. 4 (Winter 2023/24). We nominated this poem for Best Spiritual Literature.
About this poem: I wrote this poem in my head as I drove back late at night after fishing an incredible sulphur hatch on the Little Juniata River in central Pennsylvania. The sulphurs don’t hatch until dark, so my friend and I were in the water as dusk fell and the sulphurs started filling the air. Brown trout became reckless during the hatch, eating with abandon, and we fished until we couldn’t see anymore, setting the hook at the sound of water breaking. We hiked back to our cars with headlamps on and I spent the 2.5 hour drive home crafting this poem. I love driving home in the dark after fishing a hatch and those liminal moments that life offers us.
Michael Garrigan writes and teaches along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and believes every watershed should have a Poet Laureate. He is the author of two poetry collections: River, Amen and Robbing the Pillars. You can read more of his writing at www.mgarrigan.com.