And when the round of eon's
Was accomplished
In Earth's womb,
The seal split
And her water broke
With sparkling springs
From her deep well,
Issuing the neonate essence
Containing me.

Trickling among emerald moss
Ocher pebble and mica
Translucent quartz
And dappling sun
'Neath sequestering forest's nurture -
I was "infant joy"
Nursed at Nature's breast.

I was organic soul
In a growing stream of circumstance -
Stranded betimes, between midst swamp and drought
Lodged in crevasse, tangled in debris
But lifted to freedom's speed
Inevitably
By wind and stinging rain of storm.

My course expanded,
Swelled with merging creek
And brook and branch.
I learned to float
To dodge, to swim, to dance.
I dreamt in placid pool
And limped lake,
Bubbled kisses to rainbows -
Waved greetings to clouds
In azure skies.

With Longfellow I said
To the "barefoot boy
With cheek of tan,"
Who played along my banks
Frolicking splashingly with me,
"Blessings on thee, little man."

I absorbed every beam of light,
Caught scuppernongs and muscadines
Wild sweet flowers -
And swilled the honeysuckle's honey
That dripped upon my aqueous acres.
There I dwelt in poignance
Growing to ripening desire
Pulsing in passion's fire,
With a longing I could not name.

Suddenly there came
An alien essence
Challenging, engulfing
Invading the core of me
To trip the trigger
That spawned our progeny.
I folded them in gentle waves
In the silent shadows
Of Creation's music.

Then, languishing in love,
I basked in the afterglow of rapture
While sunset streaked
The face of my world
With blush.

Then came catastrophe:
The earth heaved with heavy sighs
The skies turned black, disappeared
And I was hurled at random -
Faster than the wind.
Racing rivers converged
In boiling flood.

I was bashed against boulders
Battered by contorted lurching trees,
Sucked into gulping caves -
Propelled into cascades
Of plunging falls
Where death waited with open jaws -
But I survived it all.

I had learned to twirl left and right -
To swirl with the whirlpool -
To surrender to abrasive bottoms,
Yet to rise again;
I had learned to hold my breath
To resist with defiant yes
To insist with unfailing quest
For order, for peace
Until at last, I was sifted
Through the sands of far flung shores.

Full round years rolled me far -
Over, in, out and through
This world's veins,
Where my brightest residue remains.
Time at last had poured me out
Upon the tide - beneath the moon,
That pale holy ghost
That sails the teal blue sky
Beneath the last fire
Of ashen stars long since waned.

And now, weary, worn,
Hungry for heaven
I ebb and flow -
In the shallows of hope, and somewhat
Faith,
But I know that eventually
I will wash out to sea
On that vast eternal void
Destitute of memory -

Or I'll be flung to oblivion
To join those blind and dusty stars
Whose light still shines -

Or perhaps again become the embryo
Of a new frontier?

Undated