Poem of the Week: “…the rest will take care of itself.”

The River

When I was angry, I went to the river–
New water on old stones, the patience of pools.
Let the will find its own pace
Said a voice inside me
I was learning to believe,

And the rest will take care of itself.
The fish were facing upstream, tiny trout
Suspended like souls, in their aqueous element.
I and my godlike shadow
Fell across them, and they disappeared.

All this happened deep in the mountains–
Anger, trout and shadow
With the river flowing through them.
Far away, invisible but imagined,
Was an ancient sea, where things would resolve themselves.

–Harry Clifton, from The Holding Centre: Selected Poems 1974-2004 (2014)

posted by Candide