The Tao of Fishing

This is a poem that I wrote long ago and is influenced by a time in my life that I felt very spiritually connected by fishing rivers. I would fish the mighty Shenandoah River for smallmouth bass one weekend a month and the other weekend I would fish the mountain streams of the Appalachians for trout for most of the year, though in winter months I would only fish the trout streams in the crystaline clear water and air of the mountains. At the time I was studying Taoism in depth as it resonated with my spirit and over a three day period, I wrote the following verse. I hope that you can feel the spiritual connection that I felt at this time of my life.

                                     The Tao of Fishing 

                                    The Tao of Fishing

                                Is not the Tao that can be named                               

                                It is the Tao of the universe

                                      Where all is one                                

                                 The Tao ebbs and flows                          

                               As the continuity of the river                                 

                                      Great and strong

                                    Slow and feeble                                  

                                    But ever present                               

                            As the great consciousness                

                    Where one joins the Ten Thousand Things               

                 

           When does one man join the Ten Thousand Things?                          

                               Many have pondered for centuries                       

                                    When river meets man                         

                                    When man meets rod                          

                                    When rod meets reel                            

                                    When reel meets line                             

                                    When line meets lure

                                   

                                   When lure meets water                                        

                                   When water meets man                                      

                                    The cycle is complete 

                                   Time and river are one 

                              What flows by can not be regained

 

                                Take heart in this 

                         The wise fisher remembers and profits 

                         The foolish fisher forgets and has no success

 

                                     Many wonder how to live 

                                    It is best to be like the bass 

                                    Live not in the mainstream 

                                          But by the edge 

                                       Steadied by the calm 

                                     Ready to reach for the chance                               

                                       

                                         The carp is slow 

                                 Gliding low and out of range 

                                 Unperturbed is his nature 

                                       The trout is careful 

                      Swimming and waiting with a chance to discern 

                               Before belief comes swiftly and fatally 

                        Who knows the way of the freshwater clam? 

                         Traces of empty shell are only to be found 

                                   What was once is no more

                                  

                                       The fish is not the Tao

                                     But the Fish, one of the Ten Thousand Things

                                               Is of the Tao

 

                       The river motion is of the Tao  

                                  But it is not the Tao 

                                 The motion unites man and river 

                                  And are of the Tao

                                  But they are not the Tao

 

                         When the river does not flow 

                           And there is no motion

                                    There is death

                                   This is not the Tao

                                    And not of the Tao

                             In the Tao there is only motion

                                        Motion is life

                               Motion is at one with the Tao

                                        Life is Tao

                                         Tao is motion 

                         One does not strive to capture the Tao 

                         As the wise fisherman does not set out to catch the fish 

                          Instead the wise fisherman seeks perfection in motion

                                  And joins the Ten Thousand Things

                         In this manner the wise fisherman is set free by the Ten       Thousand Things

                                    In this manner the fish joins the fisher 

                                                When the fisher is of the Tao

                                                    He often releases the fish                      

                                                He does not rejoice in death

                                             He does not condone the waste of life

                        But consumes only what is needed to sustain life             

                    The Tao embodies and preserves life in the Ten Thousand Things                             

 

 © Sherri Lynne Tancyus 1983