Fred Marchant

Poet and translator, workshop teacher, and manuscript consultation

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The Migrants

 

He hid the fire in a tall hollow stalk of fennel,
out of the sight of the great one who delights in thunder.

—Hesiod

 

In those mountains he met others walking in the same direction. Backpacks, black plastic garbage bags, food sacks, a girl with two hard-boiled eggs, the shells flaking off. Some wore t-shirts from the sports teams of the West, and one man still carried an orange life jacket. The hunted, wayward god stood beside a mother who held her infant before her the same way he held the stalk that carried the embers he had stolen. He noted dry myrtle along the side of the road, and saw a ground that seemed soft enough for them to sleep on. There would be at least this much tonight, twigs for a fire, perhaps water for tea, some warmth in the morning.

 
 

Fred Marchant's signature

from Said Not Said

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Poems

Thoreau quote at Walden PondA Cairn by the Cabin
A Place at the Table, poem by Fred Marchant. Photo by Stefi RubinA Place at the Table
Bristlecone, poem by Fred MarchantBristlecone
library
Olive Harvest, poem by Fred MarchantOlive Harvest
On a Collage by Peter Sacks
St. John's Point, photo and poem by Fred MarchantSt. John’s Point
The Looking House, poem and photo by Fred MarchantThe Looking House Stanza
Migrants, poem and photo by Fred MarchantThe Migrants
The Peach, by Võ Quê
The Salt Stronger, poem and photo by Fred MarchantThe Salt Stronger
Fred Marchant, reading for Warrior WritersTipping Point

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