(DELIA) OWENS, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING — Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky. ... [T]rue swamp crawls into low-lying bogs... in clammy forests. Swamp water is still and dark, having swallowed the light in its muddy throat.
Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky. Slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace — as though not built to fly — against the roar of a thousand snow geese.
Then within the marsh, here and there, true swamp crawls into low-lying bogs, hidden in clammy forests. Swamp water is still and dark, having swallowed the light in its muddy throat
A. | Spirited vigor; sexual allure | OOMPH |
B. | Saturated area | WETLAND |
C. | Organisms and their environs as a unit | ECOSYSTEM |
D. | "Ask me later" (2 wds.) | NOTNOW |
E. | Leading character of Sophocles? | SIGMA |
F. | Baby blue-eyes and black-eyed Susans | WILDFLOWERS |
G. | Good — or bad — roster to be on (2 wds.) | HITLIST |
H. | Austrian physicist who studied shock waves (2 wds.) | ERNSTMACH |
I. | Motley; unkempt; hastily assembled | RAGTAG |
J. | Us, to Klaatu and Gort | EARTHLINGS |
K. | Warning akin to "Heads up!" (2 wds.) | THINKFAST |
L. | Ridiculous blunder | HOWLER |
M. | 1981 hit for the Oak Ridge Boys | ELVIRA |
N. | Tree whose limbs are a symbol of mourning | CYPRESS |
O. | Full of branches | RAMOSE |
P. | Curt, perhaps rudely so | ABRUPT |
Q. | Trees whose bark gives us salicin | WILLOWS |
R. | Like fingers and much information nowadays | DIGITAL |
S. | Comment at a cringeworthy moment | AWKWARD |
T. | Atypically small | DWARFISH |
U. | Suit in a tarot deck | SWORDS |
V. | À la mode | STYLISH |
W. | Dorsally crested reptile | IGUANA |
X. | J. K. Rowling's wizard and "magizoologist" ____ Scamander | NEWT |
Y. | Athlete who hangs around bars a lot? | GYMNAST |