Seasons of Creation – A celebration of Rivers

Beginners by Denise Levertov

But we have only begun

to love the earth.

We have only begun

to imagine the fullness of life.

How could we tire of hope?

–so much is in the bud.

How can desire fail?

–we have only begun

To imagine justice and mercy

only begun to envision

how it might be

to live as siblings

with beast and flower, not as oppressors.

Surely our river

cannot already be hastening

into the sea of nonbeing?

Surely it cannot

drag, in the silt,

all that is innocent?

Not yet, not yet—

there is too much broken

that must be mended,

too much hurt we have done

to each other

that cannot yet be forgiven.

We have only begun to know

the power that is in us

if we would join

our solitudes in the

communion of struggle.

So much is unfolding that must complete its gesture.

Dedicated to the memory of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralia “From too much love of living, hope and desire set free, even the weariest river winds somewhere to the sea.”