Thursday, May 31, 2007

Speak River

For Photo Thursday on Create a Connection, we're supposed to show summer water. Here is a photo from last summer, the small river that my husband played in while a child in Amherst,NY.

Also, for Poetry Thursday, the completely and totally optional prompt is: River, so here is a poem I wrote about rivers.

Speak River
By Julie Zaccone Stiller

To speak river,
one must
be able to:
burble unselfconsciously,
keep up with the flow of conversation effortlessly,
part ways around obstructions unceasingly,
move one's point forward tirelessly,
and merge with the other participants finally,
finally in the sea.

To listen river,
one must
be able to:
open up and listen with more than one's ears.

8 comments:

Tammy Brierly said...

I loved this and believe it! Well done!

Janet said...

Beautiful!

Catherine said...

I loved the different ways of "speaking river".

Jim Brock said...

I like how speaking river involves so many possibilities, so many tongues, but to listen river requires only one great discipline.

Laume said...

Pretty photo - I can smell the water, see the little bugs drifting just over the surface, hear the small turbulances along the shores. I took some photos of our river the other day.

And your poem was even more evocative. LOVED it.

Pauline said...

exactly!

Melanie Margaret said...

Hi Julie,
I emailed you on Sunday about Try Day at CaC.
Did you get my emails?
~Melba

Karoda said...

Digging this poem! I catch moments where I'm fluent in River and then there are stretches of time when I all know is swamp talk.