Same river twice, twice, twice, switching across a continent through eons like a blue cat’s tail. Collecting all the frog-egg moons. A foam of moons hugging green banks and flooding over, in under trees. Made for us, the preacher says, his faint sermon coming from the white church on a dirt road. For us, the boat captains say. All ours, the blinded duck hunters say. Meanwhile, tadpoles in every ditch. And the panther’s blue shadow.

Mississippi River Abstraction (oil on Masonite, 1944)
by Will Henry Stevens, courtesy of Blue Spiral 1

The collection of Will Henry Stevens is represented by
Blue Spiral 1 located in Asheville, North Carolina.
Image appears here with permission from the Gallery.

Publisher’s Notes:

1. Will Henry Stevens (1881-1949) was an American modernist painter, poet, and teacher known for his paintings and pastels of rural Southern landscapes, from the highlands of Appalachia to the lowlands and deltas of Louisiana. He taught at Sophie Newcomb College (now part of Tulane University) in New Orleans for 27 years, and at several art colonies in the South, including Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Physical rights to Mississippi River Abstraction are held by The Historic New Orleans Collection:
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/mississippi-river-abstraction-will-henry-stevens/OQGHkm-EYwfmxQ?hl=en


2. The Johnson Collection has 16 paintings by Stevens:
https://thejohnsoncollection.org/will-stevens/


3. The Blue Spiral 1 Gallery presents a detailed bio of the artist and information about his work:
https://bluespiral1.com/artist/711-will-henry-stevens-1881-1949/cv

Also recommended, this PDF article by Blue Spiral 1: Will Henry Stevens: The Oriental Influence

And for those who, like me, cannot get enough of these artworks, nearly 300 of them appear in this online gallery:
https://bluespiral1.com/artist/711-will-henry-stevens-1881-1949?ppage=6

Daryl Scroggins

has taught creative writing and literature at The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of North Texas, and the Writer’s Garret, in Dallas. He now lives in Marfa, Texas. He is the author of This Is Not the Way We Came In, a collection of flash fiction and a flash novel (Ravenna Press), Winter Investments: Stories (Trilobite Press), and Prairie Shapes: A Flash Novel (winner of the 2004 Robert J. DeMott Prose Contest). His poems, short stories, and creative nonfictions have appeared in magazines and anthologies across the country, including Blink Ink, Cutbank, Eastern Iowa Review, New Flash Fiction Review, Star 82 Review, and Third Wednesday, among others.