the river

the river that came forth

out of naming itself.

this river had a sense of location,

knew itself from its banks,

its relationship to the land.

served humans that lived nearby.

they had a name for it

that everyone came to know.

the river was there with constancy,

meeting all comers with interaction.

seasons delivered the formats of attending,

summer for swim,

fall for float,

winter for skate,

and spring for adventuring.

the river knew of itself

from the nature of all of its interactions,

with people, weather, 

its movement and its steadfast presence.

there was nothing introspective

about being the river in this light.

this context was commonly shared by all.

but the river did have a privacy,

a self-intimacy that was rarely in exchange.

even a self inquiry in passing

as if, from where do I come,

how do I have mood as evident to me,

having surface above and yet surface below.

surface above already speaks for itself.

but surface below is so private,

burdened with excess from before now,

in the shaping of itself,

the errant additions from humans, 

by dumping, runoff or spillage

but more essentially 

by its own temperament,

the sense of self as embodiment

and the private experience of flow.

speaking for itself, 

I am a constancy of livingness

beyond what is commonly interactive.

I discovered that I come from sacred

as the religion of weather 

recites through me.

I have sacred mountains as forefathers.

I have the spirit of the sky run through me.

I am a devotee of gravity as a greater being.

I am never in one place for long.

I live what time offers me as alive.

for now, I am only local to others.

for myself, I go on and on.

I live through embrace of many kinds.

but I seek the eternal, 

the cycle of life

by evaporative means.

I am of one nation 

beyond whatever is humanly claimed.

I have an inner life beyond the evident.

I transcend as inner movement 

beyond constant.

my essence is a bonding humans call H2O.

viscosity is me loving.

I am a complete cycle of life.

you may know of me as river in passing,

have a nickname for me by locale.

but I have come to know 

more wildly of myself.

and I now, by the spirit of intention,

call myself flow.

for however the medium of my existence,

wherever the journey takes me,

I am the ever-change,

the embodiment of endearing,

the efficiency of movement,

the embrace of gravity, 

from near or far,

below or above.

I am also human-like, 

but free from that bind.

I am dedicated to the earth-mother

in service to her causes.

but think of me 

as in some ways, you.

and remember us as essence, 

the essence of our flow . . .