The Sea Trout Fisher

He takes again the well worn path his craft to nightly ply

On quiet summer pools where sewin silver sleeping lie

Like precious stones they shine unseen beneath the silent stream

Elusive pearls that haunt the dreams that sea trout fishers dream

Home from salty sea the roaring rapid roughly run

Home to the redd their weary journey long ago begun

To lie and wait by nature's blinding light of lengthening day

To stir and wake as verdant leaf turns slowly now to grey

In twilight hour of hawking bat and silent swooping owl

The regal corbie sitting high upon an ancient bough

Surveys the simple scene of scented summer's coming night

While high above the grey veiled moon gives out a grudging light

The heron craaks his raucous craak as now a roving otter

Disturbs the even temper of the cool clear flowing water

He stops to stare unhurried at the wading fisher's feet

Then slides upstream intent again upon his nightly beat

The braid of supple silk unfurls upon the darkening river

The teal winged fly with hackle blue and subtle glint of silver

Dressed long ago with special care upon a winter's eve

Swings steady o'er the shingle bed in slow and deft retrieve

But now the ever restless sea trout shoal has taken fright

Their moonlight shadows fearful shrink away with fading light

A chilling mist like silken shroud slips o'er the settled glen

The chance the fisher thought he had is surely lost again