Aqua Poetica – Parts I - IXX
I
Water
It is a sentence all by itself
Subject, verb and predicate
Water is the stuff of life
Water, Am I
Water
II
Water
Held together in a fragile web
Of membranes, of cell walls
Permeable tissues, some hard
As dense as bone, others soft
As malleable as the wetted
Tongue
Water is me
Water
III
Water
Two gasses; oxygen,
Hydrogen, elements
Bonded in the valence
The weak electro-link
A current, the energy
Forming the template
Of life’s first moment
Water
IV
Water
The crèche within which
Our carbon atoms nest
Metamorphosis…they respire
Become bacteria, and breathe
In water, amoeba, and later
Much later…become we
Creatures, all animated
Appetites, and moving desires
Water
V
Water
Without which I am nothing
It defines the extent of me
The parameters of my being
I mean this literally, technically
I take up more and less space
Physically, in direct proportion to
How much water I carry inside of me
My body’s water tells the tale
I plump up as I retain it, and
I wither when it evaporates
Water
VI
Water
Healthy when balanced
When well measured it flows
It defines the extent of me, of us
The limits of the flesh, yes
And of where the flesh may go
I cannot live far from it
No human can, neither grass,
Nor tree, not a flower
Or fungus either
Water
VII
Water
Some living things are immersed in it
No form of life can live apart from it
That we know of
Every eco-system is formed by it
On our world
Every social-system as well
From the insignificant Bacterium
To us…the word weaving, world
Wandering Homo Sapiens Sapient
Water
VIII
Water
There will have to be water
When we fly upward, outward
Fly to the moon, to Mars
We will carry water with us
When we journey to the stars
Water
IX
Water
From spring through autumn
I water, my garden every day
From the same pipe I draw
Water to clean, cook, drink
Water my body, warm shower
Water, falling from the spigot
Like the summer rain
Water
X
Water
My city provides it
Meters my use of it
An endless supply
Of water, I could fill
Pools with water
It costs almost nothing
Minneapolis is a city of
Water, of lakes, streams
Rivers, we are rich with
Water, fat with water, wet
Green, and blue, like jewels
Scattered on the plains
In the wake of glaciers
Melting in retreat
Water
XI
Water
Three hundred thousand people
Living in Minneapolis, drawing
Water for houses, and gardens
Businesses and parks, drawing
Water from the Mississippi
The river, connecting everyone
In a network of pipes, of channels
Carrying water, in pipes under
Pressure, a maze of pipes so vast
No Minotaur could have devised it
So complex, no Theseus navigate
The clear clean
Water
XII
Water
There are thousands of communities
Billions of people Who could never
Imagine such plenty, or abundance
Of water, where a single well, faucet
Supplies hundreds of homes with
Water, where the people carry their
Daily supply Of water, mile after
Back-breaking mile, and the calories
Spent in a day, spent hauling water
Is greater than the number they eat
The struggle for water is killing them
Slowly, inexorably shortening their lives
Even as it gives them a few more days
Water
XIII
Water
My community has so much
We consume it anonymously
Without stopping to think about
Our neighbors, how they use
Water, unless we cross paths
With their sprinklers, splashing
In their gardens, mechanically
Watering their shrubs, and vines
Watering trees, and lawns
Their beds of flowers
Water
XIV
Water
Starved communities live
At the source of water
All consumption is public
Everybody is known
Who comes to the source
Of water, there is no anonymity
Their sources of water are
Precious, water is protected
Guarded in person, by custom
Water rights by law, and rites
By taboo
Water
XV
Water
Life and death both
Hover over water
The vital necessity
Water hole, well water
The sacred obligation
It shapes the world
Society, in dry places
The tribes that control
Water, possesses power
The force of water
More than religion
Greater than gold
Water is true wealth
Life, and death without
Water
XVI
Water
With water we prepare ourselves
For the ritual encounter with God
Muslims, wash before entering
The mosque for daily prayers
Christians wash, in baptism where
The Spirit of grace is conferred
The new creation is made in water
Formed like a child in the womb
Rituals as deep as the well of
Ancestral histories, the deep
Where sleeps, Leviathan
Water
XVII
Water
There are forty-two references
In the Christian gospels
Each in its way speaks of water
As an encounter with God
Water
XVIII
Water
Water is the medium
Through which we humans
Connect with the divine
By which we define
A relationship to the sacred
Water is the good
Seeking the low
Lower than any other
The Hindu imagines
The human soul, Atman
A drop of water, distinct
Coming into individuality
Flying, in its time free
From the crest of a wave
A water droplet soaring
In space, falling water
Returns to the eternal
Ocean, Brachma
Infinite source of all-being
Water
IXX
Water
Meditate on it, breath
Deep water, without end
A plane of still water
Water rising within you
Surrounding you
Filling your vision, with water
Water…without ripple
Water…without wave
Water…undisturbed
Calm water, perfect and serene
Water, the mirror of the soul
Quell the swelling waves
Water
