How gentle this river: these waves lap the edge of morning.
All at once all this love I have held for you rushes to meet
the rising sun reflected in waters of life.

I watch for a long time, feeling the softening of rocks
scattered along the serpentine shoreline, kissed softly
by a dancing river current. Little by little

My heart opens to the flow. I had thought to feel it again
would kill me and I, like Elijah, would require a winged chariot
to carry me home. Instead, I am taken

Into this life full, absorbed yet not consumed, revealed
as wholly one with all that is and was and will yet
move between us as feather gift. 

In the tender light that moves through me in the moment,
twenty years of darkness means nothing. I become
the mighty Rio Grande overflowing her banks.

Releasing all resistance, I allow the transformation.
I trust I will be carried -- away on the wind, back to you
or ever on and homeward to the sea.