We have different names for every river, a different name for every ocean on the earth. But the river does not know that we have named it “river”—it does not know that it is separate from the waters that call “Come.” Come. The river has flowed a thousand years. It is spring, and the river is spilling with the newness of winter’s melted snow, each season flowing into each season. River, I have been gone a long time. I am returning to your waters. River, I’ve come back. River. I’m afraid. Carry me like water.
And remember Time is another river. To know we stray like a river And our faces vanish like water.
A man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river but then he’s still left with the river. A man takes his sadness and throws it away but then he’s still left with his hands.
But stand brave, life-liver Bleeding out your days In the river of Time Stand brave: Time moves both ways
I say something to God, but he’s not a living thing, so I say it to the river, I say, I want to walk through this doorway but without all those ghosts on the edge, I want them to stay here. I want them to go on without me. I want them to burn in the water.
The dream of my life
is to lie down by a slow river
and stare at the light in the trees–
to learn something by being nothing
And I find you there in your country flair Middle of the river in a lawn chair With your wrinkled hands and your silver hair Leaving here soon and you know where To where the cattail sways with the lonesome loon You’ll be riding that train in late June
Benjamin Alire Sàenz "Carry Me Like Water" // Jorge Luis Borges "The Art of Poetry" // Ivan Puig "km7" // Richard Siken "Crush" // Joanna Newsom "Time, As A Symptom" // John William Waterhouse "Circe" // Ada Limón "Sharks in the Rivers" // Mary Oliver "Entering The Kingdom" // Vincent Van Gogh "The Ravine" // Gareth Edwards // Big Thief "Cattails"
