There are, for every fly-fisher, a list of fish they would most like to pursue, in an adventure of a lifetime. The contents of that list is as varied and the humans making up the list. For some such pursuit is a regular activity; for a few it is daily. But for the majority of such dreams, the pursuit is long, costly and likely as not to happen. But the tinge and spice of the possibility never dies.
There are going to be a few fish species making an appearance on EVERY list.
One of the ‘Every List Species’, will be the Silver King of the tropic salt water environment. Those aerial monsters, when pieced by the steely point of pursuit, explode in immediate acrobatics, reaching for the stars to disengage the connection of expectation. Sporting the silver-dollar-sized-scales, sought as trophy validation of adventure realized, these beasts of the tropics instill a wanderlust of immense proportion. Weighing in at the size of a relatively small deer, but imparting the body-jolting concussive force of a 300-lb line-backer from a blind-side block. This piscatorial combatant is a body and mind uppercut more than adequately capable of rending a TKO; figuratively and realistically.
The Atlantic Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) towers over it’s diminutive cousin, the Indo-Pacific Tarpon (Megalops cyprinoides), making Megalops atlanticus the undisputed king of the tropic salt-water shallows; near, in-shore, mangrove, pier, river. Tarpon are Silver King Royalty.
Tarpon have been the inspiration of story and art, fueling imagination for generations among those exposed, widening the influence beyond the native boundaries of the warm saltwater. The experience is exhilarating, addictive, altering, muscle and nerve wrenching and has freed-up space in more bank accounts that most would imagine, or like to admit.
Tarpon are a challenge worthy of seeking.
My online Friend-Not-Yet-Met, Paul Puckett, hailing from the Charleston, South Carolina area, is a regular purveyor of such wanderlust, through his art. As an avid fly-fisher, artist, entrepreneur, Paul, the owner of Sporting Art of Paul Puckett and Flood Tide, Inc., has focused upon the tarpon in many of his paintings and illustrations. Paul’s unique blend of soothing, southern-comfort-art, plays upon the general flavor of the marine environment, while deftly adding spice, marinated in the condiments of the marine environs, then laced with story so Siren seductive, it keeps you licking the plate long after the shine has returned.
Recently he posted on his Facebook page one such tarpon study. A simple head-shot. But it wasn’t all that simple. Because, beneath the appearance of simplicity, oozed the frenetic energy of a collective history, archived in my brain; for such moments of chaotic lucidity; about this beast – whom I have yet to tangle – to burst forth in verse. A poem.
That poem is called, Silver Dreams. A collaborative work between my inspired synapses, egged on by Paul’s comfort art, giving rise to another, CXC – CreXpoCon – Creative Exponential Continuum, work between Paul and my crazed spew of words.
Thou mayest whisper thus again,
Sweet music to our ears.
Great silver scales cascade the depths,
They call amid the waves and sky.
As Siren stride the winds of time,
Swim tails of mystery and myth.
Cut through both heart and soul,
To dance upon the night,
Imaginings float aft again,
Sweet love of Silver Megalopidae.
We do hope you enjoy the visual and cerebral inducement to enjoy in the eLITHOGRAPH seen below.
My thanks to Paul Puckett for his continued support of my habitual need to write by offering such fertile visual cues. May the addiction never find relief!
CXC
Silver Dreams .. an eLITHOGRAPH image 18″ x 13″; output as watercolor mixed media
CreXpoCon 