Category: Daredevils & Stunters
-
The Death of Sam Patch by Cornelius Eady
No, there’s no mistaking Mr. Patch. History will lead him to a watery grave In my hometown of Rochester, NY. He will disappear after he jumps Only to return with the spring thaw. There is so much in his brief fame To ponder, that tugs at us. Rochester, like any mill town Is full of…
-
Niagara’s Charms and Death of Webb by James McIntyre
charms Gazing on rapids mighty sea, Struggling fiercely to be free, But drawn downwards in its course By gravitation’s wondrous force, O’er those perpendicular walls, Hurled ’mong mighty rocks it falls, Causing the earth to throb and shake Like to the tremor of earthquake. Thus the world’s greatest wonder Reverberates like peals of thunder, Enshrined…
-
Psalm by Matt Donovan
Sam Patch, Daredevil, 1800–1829 The trick was breathing in, you claimed, as if that was allthey gathered to watch as you milked the crowd in your matador sash,rum-slurring some speech no one could hear above the river’s thunder,quipping your catchphrase long worn threadbare: Some thingscan be done as well as others. But most things don’t sputter backeven…
-
El Barril by James Thomas Stevens
In the one-time mecca of the hard-up honeymoon, we were both born. Yours, a life above the waterfall. Mine, below. And Annie Taylor? We were all schooled in her story. How Miss Michigan schoolteacher took on the cataract at sixty-three. In her petticoats and lace-up boots, clutching her good-luck-heart-shaped satin pillow, she stepped into the…
-
The Thing by Bill Hamilton
Rapids rage, in furrows to their end and fall, Off the edge, as if dropping off the face of the earth And thunder resonates, as foam and mist rise, Into nature’s cauldron, that churns and abounds. A family possessed with this mighty river, Gain fame meeting its constant challenge Traversing the worst of treacherous rapids…