The River’s Way

The River’s Way

written by: Julian Lee

 

It trickles first from stone with newborn grace,
A whisper in the moss, a breath so small,
No thought yet formed, no name to rise or fall,
Just motion born beneath the mountain’s face.

Through childhood fields it leaps in shining play,
It laughs in curves and dances over stone,
Oblivious to where it must be grown,
Content to chase the golden light of day.

In youth it surges fierce with sudden might,
Its banks are bold, its waters wild and wide,
It knows not yet what waits beyond the tide,
But rushes on in hunger and delight.

Then deepening, it meets the weight of years,
The burdened banks, the branches swept aside,
The eddies form where secret griefs may hide,
Its roar now tinged with echoes of old fears.

Yet wisdom comes in bends it cannot flee,
It learns to hold the sky in stiller glass,
To cradle stars and let the moonlight pass,
And slow its pace with calm humility.

At last it meets the vast and waiting sea,
Its voice no longer loud, but full and clear,
It blends with depths beyond the grasp of fear,
The end, and yet, the start of all to be.