Poem: “Winter Inlet Arrangement” by Hastings Hensel
Journal: 32 Poems
Favorite line/ phrase: “the tin sheen of the pluff mud bank”
Response: This is a poem I wish I had written. It sees both the detail in the landscape but also the meaning behind it, the way we freight what we see with who we are. And while I can see everything he describes, and it makes perfect sense to me, I have never thought of it in those terms. Sometimes, that is exactly what I want poetry to be: new, but understood, terms for the world around me.
Maggie Blake Bailey Poetry 
There many images to unpack in this but you’re right ‘tin sheen’ accurately describes the pluff from a distance — then we get close and realize we’re sinking through it. A great image for the difference that distance makes. This had been on my mind when Pat Conroy passed away — it’s probably an image that writers from the southeast coast are the best at mining.