'Heed the Current of Your Stream'

In 1995, R.L. Barth published the chapbook Samuel Johnson: Selected Latin Poems Translated by Various Hands, with contributions by ten poets including Len Krisak who adapts Johnson’s “In Rivum a Mola Stoana Lichfieldiae diffuentem.” Krisak titles it “The River by the Mill of Stowe, In Lichfield, Where the Waters Flow”: “The river wanders still, and still as glass, It passes through that boyhood’s grassy meadow where My little limbs, with little skill, would flail the air That settled on its pool. And there, held fast, “I heard my father’s voice and learned to swim; His words were soft and clear beneath the bending limbs Of willows casting daylight shadows, hiding him And me below the bright sun. Darkness dimmed The secret place that father taught his son. Now time has put an axe’s edge to all the trees, And shade no longer lies there. Even distant eyes Can see these naked waters barely run “Their undeflected course beneath the air Of Lichfield, making for the sea. Protected once By…