April 20, 2024

Claudia Emerson Publishes Poem in The New Yorker

Claudia Emerson, professor of English and Arrington distinguished chair of poetry, had her poem “Catfish” featured in the October 24th issue of The New Yorker. The poem is below:

 

Catfish

 

 

It nuzzles oblivion, confuses
itself with mud. A creature

of familiar taste, it ambushes
from its nest of ooze the pond’s

brighter fish, clears its palate
with their eggs, lumbers fat

and stagnant into winter, lulled
into dreams of light sinking until

light drowns, and all is as before.

About Brynn Boyer

Brynn Boyer is assistant director of media and public relations and a 2010 graduate of UMW.