From a deep fissure in the moss-covered ground
I escape and gurgle down a rocky outcrop
Starting as a brook, a stream
I gather strength and size as I flow over smooth rocks
I eddy in dark, deep pools shaded by weeping willows
Or lazily flow between banks spiked with tall reeds
meandering among buttercup dotted fields
Dragonflies skim above
And the blue heron watches from the grassy bank
As I dance in the sparkles of sunlight
that ripple along my course
I roar with muddy waters after a heavy rainfall
Other times, I can barely whisper in the stifling, searing heat
Under the brilliance of fall, salmon fight off my waves
as they laboriously swim upstream to spawn
In the dead of winter, I am almost immobile
invisible under a crust of stubborn ice
But I am never still and life flows in and around me
I am River
