If you are looking for an enjoyable read this summer, explore it through the eyes of a poetic catfish. Calvin The Catfish, written by local poet Calvin “Catfish” Carson, explores environmental awareness in verse.
Carson was inspired to write the book after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and other human induced contaminations. In 2018, the book was finally published.
“I’ve always been environmentally conscious,” said Carson. Growing up the Mississippi River Delta, Carson always enjoyed the outdoors fishing, hunting, camping, and boating.
“I was taught not to destroy our environment but to protect it and all the living things in our home, Mother Earth. I wanted to write a book from a fish’s perspective of survival amid the uncertainty of everyday life,” Carson continued.
Carson is a former marine science teacher. He currently lives in Ebro, Florida and can be heard occasionally playing his hand saw at the Boathouse in Destin.
Excerpt from the book:
“I was hatched in an estuary
Beneath the moss and the canary
I might be a fish, I might be a snail.
There’s a good chance that I even be a whale.
I am a fish instead of a snail, or a whale.
I am the fish that they call Catfish
If I find a genie in a bottle and get just one wish,
I wish that the world would become a better place,
If the human would just listen to us fish.”
The 28-page book can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Walmart.