I am the river

I’m the river

that snores

The river that moans. The river that roars…

Every sound of its roar is my breath.

Its rise and its fall is a sign of life

In the depth of my bone

It is the color of my curiosity.

My courage and my cowardice.

Every bit of its flow is my hope, my strength

Tears of my bliss, whisper of my love.

Magic of creativity. My singing age.

I’m the mountain.

Every part of its rise

And every minute of its silence

Is my song that’s not sang yet.

My denied freedom, my hushed liberty.

Every speechless stone is my deep sleep.

I’m the Sun, the Sky, the Moon, the galaxies.. the milky way…

Their every twinkle, their every stare,

Their every frown, their every smile

Their every caress is my wakefullness.

Their divine warmth is my longing for newness.

I’m the woods

Every single wood is the renewal of my physical body

The song of the beasts in the wood is my heartbeat,

The shade of every single tree is my serenity

I’m themeadow, the moors

Every single blade of leaves is my flesh under my skin

Every grass is my blood cell.

The flowers in the grass are laugher and sorrow in my heart.

Every road that crosses unending glassfield

Is part of me that sings with light.

My presence. The awareness of the Now

I’m a farmer.

His bellowing bulls, his bleating sheep

His frolicking horses and kicking mules

Are the age of innocence.

The cord between a cow and the calf

And the milk in between is immortal tenderness

Of my mother.

The serene thatched, lonely houses

Are my purple moments

when I meet the formless, the ageless. The nameless

I’m the winds.

Every sound of its whistle

Is the poem I am composing.

Every groan of its might is

The symphony of this poem

And every sigh of its fury is my suppressed feelings.

I’m the earth.

Her hills and her gorges are my silent tongue.

Every speck of her dust is my beautiful death

My buried intensities. My spent hours, my evenings.

Light enters me through your smile

And it departs from me though your sobs

And it returns to me again through your silence

Through everyone of you,

I learn how to live

And through everyone of you

I practice the art of dying.
                                         [2000, Shegger, Ethiopia]