Friday, October 19, 2012

Water Mother


I breath the waves;
my age is measured 
in their rise and fall.
But old as I am 
there was a time before even I existed.

In that time, 
in that world of cracked raw rock, 
there was no water
and no life,
for life could not begin without me.
For a time that seemed forever
all remained dry.
But when the rains began, they fell 
for a time that seemed forever,
and in their falling 
was my beginning.

O Mare Creatrix!
Beloved daughter of my heart’s mysteries
whom I have enfolded in my depths forever,
this pain that you bear is a passing thing;
the sign of a soul overwhelmed by wonder.

Soon you will understand everything.
You will number without effort
the times that my waves rise and fall
in a thousand years.
You will describe perfectly
the traceries of my changing currents,
both as they are now
and as they will become
in an undreamed future.

Part of you has always longed for this.
Part of you has always known 
all that you are about to learn:
a memory recovered in the silence
between two waves,
in the silence
between two lives.





4 comments:

  1. I love this poem! Thank you Emma for this beautiful and inspiring poetry. Water is the Mother of life for without water how can there be life? So "Water Mother" is an apt title. And life itself like water, has an ebb and flow, a rise and fall, and like water always returns back to source as part of a grand cycle. No matter where water is in the cycle, as the river, the sea, the cloud, ice, snow or rain, it still remains simply water. Hence life is still life and it is eternally so no matter at which point of the cycle we find ourselves in. For me this poem merges deep wisdom with mystical beauty. I like every line of the poem, but the last stanza especially struck me :
    "Part of you has always longed for this.
    Part of you has always known
    all that you are about to learn:
    a memory recovered in the silence
    between two waves,
    in the silence
    between two lives."
    Thank you for this beautiful poem Emma - it is a gift to truly treasure!

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