Before water
There must have been
A Prayer for water.²
I bring clear water from the Spring,
Praised in its own low murmuring.³
Dip them in the River who love Water—⁴
Enter the Sea and notice how the water divides
With perfect courtesy—to let you in!⁵
Swimmers dare to lie face into the sky
And Water bears them.⁶
Water is Free only in its Gathering together—
In its downward courses—in its rising into Air—⁷
Water becomes Vapor and rises to the sky,
Becomes Rain and plunges from the sky,
Becomes Source, becomes Brook,
Becomes River, strives & flows anew—⁸
Water teaches us how to be Clouds:
How to Rise and Morph and Flourish
And Die and be Reborn—⁹
A Well of water springs up
Into Everlasting Life!¹⁰
¹ Rae Armantrout, Later
² Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Mythmaking
³ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Deserted Garden
⁴ William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
⁵ Mary Oliver, Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches
⁶ Denise Levertov, The Avowal
⁷ Wendell Berry, The Law that Marries All Things
⁸ Hermann Hesse tr. Joachim Neugroschel, Siddhartha
⁹ Bill Hicok, More Than Whispers, Less Than Rumors
¹⁰ John 4:14 (King James)