The River

The River

Quiet waters run deep in your river of life
As with most rivers, time has etched your course
You've lived as a daughter, a mother and wife
You've known joy, sadness, love and remorse
These emotions, like floods, have widened your path
As your life giving waters flow
And they have shaped you into who you are
The one I have come to know
I've known you in spring as a nurturing stream
Giving life to flowers that grow on your banks
And in the summer, a place where children play
You understood when they forgot to say "thanks"
The starkness of fall when crimson leaves
Like shattered dreams, try to block your way
And the winter’s chill that tests your will
As you survive another day
You’ve withstood the floods and rapids of mud
That treated your shores with contempt
And the thirst of drought that left you in doubt
If you would ever be mighty again
As your water flows, your stature grows
To tributaries like me to whom you've given birth
And we spend our lives under nature's sky
Until we are redeemed in the ocean's surf
I'm forever in your debt, to you my giver of life
May I always make you proud
And when our journey ends, may we meet again
As mere drops of rain from a passing cloud