{"id":1938,"date":"2018-06-09T12:25:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T11:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2023-11-12T13:16:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T13:16:22","slug":"fishing-in-fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1938","title":{"rendered":"Fishing in Fog: Thames Valley Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

FISHING IN FOG<\/strong><\/p>\n

A winter Sunday, fog and frost<\/p>\n

Two figures climbing a stile<\/p>\n

Boots crunching crisp grass underfoot<\/p>\n

Head toward the Thames at Clifton<\/p>\n

My father not yet seventy, still working<\/p>\n

And I back home for a day’s fishing<\/p>\n

Struggling with tackle and reels in the cold<\/p>\n

Sit expecting nothing, no fish bite in this weather<\/p>\n

Talk about things, my grandparents<\/p>\n

The cost of renting, share a flask of tea<\/p>\n

Steam rising across his face as he pours it<\/p>\n

Lines taught in the brittle air, disappearing<\/p>\n

Then slowly the sun starts to lift the fog<\/p>\n

The opposite bank starts to appear<\/p>\n

A moorhen skirts the bank, swans drift by<\/p>\n

Beyond the fog a dog barks endlessly<\/p>\n

For a few hours we hold on to hope<\/p>\n

Stare back into the white eternal glare<\/p>\n

Of mist along the river looking for a bite<\/p>\n

Staring at futures unseen, but clearly there<\/p>\n

Now and again on a misty morning<\/p>\n

Crossing the Trent I see father and sons trudging<\/p>\n

Through the mist and rain together, silent<\/p>\n

Sharing thoughts, hopes, jokes, together<\/p>\n

Their lives unravelling like lines in the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FISHING IN FOG A winter Sunday, fog and frost Two figures climbing a stile Boots crunching crisp grass underfoot Head toward the Thames at Clifton My father not yet seventy, still working And I back home for a day’s fishing Struggling with tackle and reels in the cold Sit expecting nothing, no fish bite in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[60,74,33,106,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-writing","category-horseshoe-press","category-poetry","category-new-poems","category-working-class-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-vg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1938"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2940,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938\/revisions\/2940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}