Endless Song Of The River
© Surazeus
2018 05 12
Each time I walk along the flowing water
I can hear the endless song of the river
that vibrates in the hot blood of our bodies
and echoes in the language of our tongues.
The longest river on our continent
springs from three lonely vales high in the mountains
which flow together, winding among hills,
to fertilize two thousand miles of meadows.
Springing from high Centennial Mountain vale,
the big muddy Missouri flows slow east
and joins the Mississippi flowing south,
great highway to every field of the land.
Whenever I read in ancient folk tales
about the River God with flashing eyes
I imagine the mafia gangster king
who controls river traffic from his bridge.
The oldest civilizations on Earth
sprang from the pyramid of the River God
he built at the mouth of the longest river
to manage estates on lush river shores.
The Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates,
the Saraswati, the Ganges, the Brahma,
the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, the Yangtze,
and the Huang Ho all nourished human tribes.
Though my ancestors were first born in Scythia,
where the Istros River flows into the Black Sea,
they followed Danubius west into Europe
then sailed from Scotland to America.
Leaving misty woods of Massachusetts,
they traveled west along Ohio River,
Puritans escaping Great Babylon
to build new farms in the lush wilderness.
Riding covered wagons west on rough trails,
my ancestors followed Missouri River
from Illinois to live in Idaho
where thunder cracks over snow-covered peaks.
So far away from homeland of my heart,
in sun-glowing hills of windy Sarmatia,
I was born in mountains of Oregon
near by the mighty Nichiwana River.
Eight thousand years all my ancestors journeyed
west from steppes of Scythia to Oregon,
riding horses and planting apple trees,
and leaving trail of skulls around the globe.
While climbing hills around Takoma Mountain,
I gaze back east along eight thousand years,
eight thousand miles over mountains and seas,
and long to return where I first began.
They traveled west around our spinning globe
one thousand miles for every thousand years,
but I can fly Seattle to Kiyev
in half a day, riding the swift airplane.
If I return to Scythia by airplane
and walk along the Varustana River,
will I find the first mother of my tribe
who tamed the horse and planted apple trees?
Somewhere among the trees on lofty hill,
on the lush shore of the broad Dnieper River,
I may find the ruins of Arheimar,
the River Home capital of the Goths.
Today I walk by Chattahoochee River
that flows from Appalachian Mountains south
into the windy Gulf of Mexico,
and listen to the voices of the dead.
They whisper in the breeze of every river,
the ancestors of every tribe on Earth
who first woke on the shore of shining stream
and spread into the rugged hills to live.
Though we first evolved in the ocean tides,
we crawled up rivers to fresh-water lakes
where we transformed from lizards into mice,
then climbed in trees along wide river streams.
Coming down from the trees we no-tailed apes
learned to walk upright in the ocean tide
then walked along the rivers into hills
and built ten thousand cities that shine bright.
The endless song of the river I hear
in the rhythmic cadence of poems we sing
for we hum melodies of rippling light
how sunlight glitters on deep flowing water.
© Surazeus
2018 05 12
Each time I walk along the flowing water
I can hear the endless song of the river
that vibrates in the hot blood of our bodies
and echoes in the language of our tongues.
The longest river on our continent
springs from three lonely vales high in the mountains
which flow together, winding among hills,
to fertilize two thousand miles of meadows.
Springing from high Centennial Mountain vale,
the big muddy Missouri flows slow east
and joins the Mississippi flowing south,
great highway to every field of the land.
Whenever I read in ancient folk tales
about the River God with flashing eyes
I imagine the mafia gangster king
who controls river traffic from his bridge.
The oldest civilizations on Earth
sprang from the pyramid of the River God
he built at the mouth of the longest river
to manage estates on lush river shores.
The Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates,
the Saraswati, the Ganges, the Brahma,
the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, the Yangtze,
and the Huang Ho all nourished human tribes.
Though my ancestors were first born in Scythia,
where the Istros River flows into the Black Sea,
they followed Danubius west into Europe
then sailed from Scotland to America.
Leaving misty woods of Massachusetts,
they traveled west along Ohio River,
Puritans escaping Great Babylon
to build new farms in the lush wilderness.
Riding covered wagons west on rough trails,
my ancestors followed Missouri River
from Illinois to live in Idaho
where thunder cracks over snow-covered peaks.
So far away from homeland of my heart,
in sun-glowing hills of windy Sarmatia,
I was born in mountains of Oregon
near by the mighty Nichiwana River.
Eight thousand years all my ancestors journeyed
west from steppes of Scythia to Oregon,
riding horses and planting apple trees,
and leaving trail of skulls around the globe.
While climbing hills around Takoma Mountain,
I gaze back east along eight thousand years,
eight thousand miles over mountains and seas,
and long to return where I first began.
They traveled west around our spinning globe
one thousand miles for every thousand years,
but I can fly Seattle to Kiyev
in half a day, riding the swift airplane.
If I return to Scythia by airplane
and walk along the Varustana River,
will I find the first mother of my tribe
who tamed the horse and planted apple trees?
Somewhere among the trees on lofty hill,
on the lush shore of the broad Dnieper River,
I may find the ruins of Arheimar,
the River Home capital of the Goths.
Today I walk by Chattahoochee River
that flows from Appalachian Mountains south
into the windy Gulf of Mexico,
and listen to the voices of the dead.
They whisper in the breeze of every river,
the ancestors of every tribe on Earth
who first woke on the shore of shining stream
and spread into the rugged hills to live.
Though we first evolved in the ocean tides,
we crawled up rivers to fresh-water lakes
where we transformed from lizards into mice,
then climbed in trees along wide river streams.
Coming down from the trees we no-tailed apes
learned to walk upright in the ocean tide
then walked along the rivers into hills
and built ten thousand cities that shine bright.
The endless song of the river I hear
in the rhythmic cadence of poems we sing
for we hum melodies of rippling light
how sunlight glitters on deep flowing water.
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