THE RIVER
OnceI gurgled with a hissIn the glacier’s cold abyss.Dull and muffled was my songAs I felt my way alongThrough the mystic caves of glassFar below the great crevasse.Now I greet the blessed light,Out of night and bursting white—Baby-giant—keen to forge,Loudly laughing, through the gorge;Straddling rocks and riding bumps,Brushing branches, hurdling stumps,Peevish, boiling, sluggish, slack,Lunging forward, swirling back;Leaping from a bouldered dale,Snaking through a clay-banked swale,Draining streams from every drawDown into my hungry maw,Swelling with the tribute paid—This is how a river’s made.
OnceI gurgled with a hissIn the glacier’s cold abyss.Dull and muffled was my songAs I felt my way alongThrough the mystic caves of glassFar below the great crevasse.Now I greet the blessed light,Out of night and bursting white—Baby-giant—keen to forge,Loudly laughing, through the gorge;Straddling rocks and riding bumps,Brushing branches, hurdling stumps,Peevish, boiling, sluggish, slack,Lunging forward, swirling back;Leaping from a bouldered dale,Snaking through a clay-banked swale,Draining streams from every drawDown into my hungry maw,Swelling with the tribute paid—This is how a river’s made.
OnceI gurgled with a hissIn the glacier’s cold abyss.Dull and muffled was my songAs I felt my way alongThrough the mystic caves of glassFar below the great crevasse.Now I greet the blessed light,Out of night and bursting white—Baby-giant—keen to forge,Loudly laughing, through the gorge;Straddling rocks and riding bumps,Brushing branches, hurdling stumps,Peevish, boiling, sluggish, slack,Lunging forward, swirling back;Leaping from a bouldered dale,Snaking through a clay-banked swale,Draining streams from every drawDown into my hungry maw,Swelling with the tribute paid—This is how a river’s made.