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Evening

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From "All of Us: The Collected Poems" by Raymond Carver (Vintage: 386 pp., $14 paper)

I fished alone that languid autumn evening.

Fished as darkness kept coming on.

Experiencing exceptional loss and then

exceptional joy when I brought a silver salmon

to the boat, and dipped a net under the fish.

Secret heart! When I looked into the moving water

and up at the dark outline of the mountains

behind the town, nothing hinted then

I would suffer so this longing

to be back once more, before I die.

Far from everything, and far from myself.

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