Source

I walk  river banks, 
dream of conversation,
sniff the air and listen.
No insect hum, no bird song.

Only my sigh, a muted shape, rivals
water  sounds.  In the silence...
In the silence...I beg for one bird's call:

follow  the course upstream
where the river itself takes color,
cuts tracks in land, twists
between stones to wash
its own deep channels;

ride a raft of my making,
until I hear all silence
and the current intertwine,

and light as a leaf on the river,
I learn wherever a river runs
a river will always be.


 ãCrane 2002

< Return to Contents