50+ Lifestyles

Max’s Musings

By Max Molleston

Few of us, that’s you and me, have been where our guest poet and his spouse, Helen, have traveled to spend time with eyes, ears, hearts, pen and pad. Using our senses, we would be overwhelmed with what we see and experience. I introduce Richard “Dick” Stahl, retired teacher, writer and poet. Many of you may have read, met and talked with him over the last few decades, the same length of time I have been happy to hear and read his poetry and prose. Late January, the postman delivered Stahl’s new book titled “Bluffing.” The beauty of his poems, common sense readable, composed with whimsy, a poet’s privilege. “Top billing” too, for extraordinary photos of impressive land bluffs, crowns abutting the Mississippi River, revealed as they should be, naturally spectacular. Stahl’s initial poem in the book carries the title, “Bluffing.” We give you the final two stanzas.

One long view upriver or down
from a craggy limestone bluff starts a spirit that
connects sky to swirling waters, foamy whitecaps,
wooded islands, sharp bends, shoals, eddies and
muddy backwaters, maybe to another high bluff
across misty open spaces wide as Lake Pepin
to another state where my imagination meanders
like ancient sturgeons.

These bluffs that plod upriver
like a caravan of camels are tricksters, working
their high magic on me, luring my eyes
down, sometimes even
below the waterline, to discover
those soundings of deeper truths.

Stahl’s next poem, with inspiring photography, is “Below Bluffing.” The last three stanzas want to tell us more about the Mississippi River and what is to see and imagine from these special bluffs.

Below the waterline runs
the currents, cross currents and
strong undercurrents
of a once massive water rush
three hundred feet deeper
to ancient bedrock.

Reading the sacred water
from a bluff
or from the deck of a moving car ferry
tells me everything
and nothing
about that darker patch of water there,
that frost-like foam closer ,
or that clear water oasis stretched like a
frosty rubber band
across a horseshoe island
that’s ready to spring.

Our duty and desire every month is to introduce one poet and to bring forth a portion of his or her work Sometimes, your writer labors on trying to explain. With Dick Stahl poetry you begin the search. The beauty of his vision gets transferred to his tablet. If you possess his book, read this poetry again and again, and claim for yourselves the vision, beauty, and clarity. Get closer to Mississippi River mystery using Dick Stahl’s imagination and his skilled arrangements of words.

I am thrilled to have another opportunity to feature the poet Dick Stahl, as he grabs hold of us bringing the Mississippi River and its extravagance our way. This old river continues to provide comfort and caution as it rolls along. Join me here next month. All of us would like to begin the enjoyment of Springtime and the outdoor work we cherish.