The poem’s dramatic and understated opening line—“The river is famous to the fish” (Line 1)—at once establishes and upends reader expectations. It is a curious upcycling of the word “famous,” a threadbare and too-familiar buzzword for the post-postmodern world of easy celebrity and quick fame. The line compels the reader to redefine a familiar term, thus beginning what will quickly become a lesson in reimagining the world.

Like the birds who eye the cat from their birdhouse, like the tear-stained cheek, like the heart wherein a person keeps their deepest ideas, the fish symbolize all those who depend on but may not fully appreciate elements of their world vital to their very existence. In a poem that celebrates the thereness of things and people the fish symbolizes those who, immersed in the busy day-to-day routine, may not stop and appreciate the complex environment that sustains that busyness. The poem argues that nothing should be taken for granted. Appreciate the river, the poem argues to the fish. The collaboration of energies creates a world that, once perceived, reveals its complex operation and in turn its radiant design.