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Everglade Hunters

Minotaur

Governor
Hope you enjoy it:

Everglade Hunters

The hounds of the Everglades
cut through the silence, joyously
chasing the moments delight
of gator or phantom in full-throated
chorus that sliced through the mist
swathe with wails in the night.

The sounds in the distance,
distended notes risen, fell
in communal expression as one,
riding the wind to spread a concerto
of hounds hunting shadows,
enthralled by the run.

Sometimes in the evening
I still hear them wailing,
it carries me back to that mystical place.
Again, I'm held captive
by sounds of the hunters,
still caught in their frolicking chase.

Min
 

RedCloud

Mayor
Hope you enjoy it:

Everglade Hunters

The hounds of the Everglades
cut through the silence, joyously
chasing the moments delight
of gator or phantom in full-throated
chorus that sliced through the mist
swathe with wails in the night.

The sounds in the distance,
distended notes risen, fell
in communal expression as one,
riding the wind to spread a concerto
of hounds hunting shadows,
enthralled by the run.

Sometimes in the evening
I still hear them wailing,
it carries me back to that mystical place.
Again, I'm held captive
by sounds of the hunters,
still caught in their frolicking chase.

Min
Excellent, Minotaur!
 

fairsheet

Senator
Two of my all time favorite stories, are "Cross Creek" and "The Yearling". I guess it may be that their "socio-locales" seem so exotic to me. Yet...I've never come within a thousand miles of So. Florida.

I mean it when I tell JD that I'd love to ride through W. Texas on a motorcycle. I'd love to spend a week in an upstate NY cabin-on-a-lake, or at some sort of dude ranch in Nebraska. And...I leap at ANY chance to spend however many days I can get in an NYC hotel. But...So. Florida?...I'm saving that for a time when I can actually "be there", for at least a coupla months. I'm thinking that to do otherwise, would be a complete swing 'n a miss.
 

fairsheet

Senator
Take lots of insect repellent when you go.
Funny thing is....I've spent lots of time in lots of tropical-type places. Shit...I spent a coupla months in Bolivian Amazonia but.....I've never encountered bugs - mosquitos and blackflies - to even remotely rival Alaska's!
 

Minotaur

Governor
I have to say Florida has always been short visits from California and then Utah for us but it grabs you with ghosts from the past. So much so we moved here last year to the Gulf side. The spirit of Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) hooked me. I was captured as a kid and never lost the draw I felt for Florida.

I relate to the wish and hope you make it happen one day.
 

fairsheet

Senator
I have to say Florida has always been short visits from California and then Utah for us but it grabs you with ghosts from the past. So much so we moved here last year to the Gulf side. The spirit of Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) hooked me. I was captured as a kid and never lost the draw I felt for Florida.

I relate to the wish and hope you make it happen one day.
Speaking of Hemingway (tune out, if you'd heard my riff before)...I decided it was time for me to read a Hemingway. So, I chose "Islands in the Stream" somewhat at random. It was literally, the most boring book I've ever read. The only reasons I slogged my way through the whole thing, was because I'd committed to reading at least one Hemingway, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing what all the Hemingway fuss was about, AND because I loved his setting.

On this note, I've asked but not yet gotten an answer. Is "Islands in the Stream" a bad example of Hemingway, or a good one? If it's a bad one, I'll try him again. But....if it's a good one, that'll be be sign that he's not for me.
 

Minotaur

Governor
I think the answer is it is a typical example but not on his best list. Two of his that some like are For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms. I read the Old Man and the Sea but I'm not sure I got through it either. I think I would have preferred to be fishing. LOL. Maybe I was too young to appreciate it. Who knows. Truthfully to me he is more about his life. I REALLY prefer F. Scott Fitzgerald. I mentioned The Great Gatsby and that should have bored me to death but I loved it as the characters are complex. One of those I could not put down. The setting feeds the need for the southern life. He is easily my favorite. ;)

Just a little oddity but I read some of his wife Zelda's writings and even the novel about her and though she wrote little she had a real ability. There is a book about her titled "Zelda". It is fascinating and those 2 were easily as complex as the novels he wrote. Look her up on line as I honestly think they competed with each other. 2 cRaZy but brilliant people.

Sorry about the rambling but I love me some southern writings for that era.
 

fairsheet

Senator
My problem with "Islands in the Stream", was that I perceived no plot whatsoever. I don't need the whole thing wrapped up with a pretty little bow but....c'mon, is it too much to ask for at least something akin to a closing of the loop?
 

Minotaur

Governor
This is getting sacrilegious and we may be burned at the stake so maybe we need to read his earliest novel as that gets positive feedback. He may well be over rated but I just don't know. My view after trying to read him is he was complex but his novel was not. Does near-boring come to mind in the one you read? I loved his Florida Key lifestyle though and it has always been a big draw for me which is why he came to mind in your descriptions of lingering longer in Florida.
 
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