I have seen Kingfishers before, including the largest species in the Western
Hemisphere, near Vera Cruz, MX, but today a friend forwarded this poem by KY
native, Wendell Berry....it was on today's writer's almanac.
Have you ever been canoeing and had a Kingfisher flying ahead of you, we have.
Preston Forsythe, Browder, KY
Before Dark
by Wendell Berry
From the porch at dusk I watched
a kingfisher wild in flight
he could only have made for joy.
He came down the river, splashing
against the water's dimming face
like a skipped rock, passing
on down out of sight. And still
I could hear the splashes
farther and farther away
as it grew darker. He came back
the same way, dusky as his shadow,
sudden beyond the willows.
The splashes went on out of hearing.
It was dark then. Somewhere
the night had accommodated him
—at the place he was headed for
or where, led by his delight,
he came.
