Chorus of the River Souls

FEATURE | WAIRUATANGA / SPIRITUALITY

Written by Niwa van Leeuwen (he/him) | Contributing Writer

We, the dreamers, 'neath the tide

Breathing where no breath abides

Nothing holds

        currents fold and blend

Motion neither starts nor ends

Shadows winding between each braid

Drowning the past, in motion made

The river bends, the shadows dance 

Drowning in silence, waking in trance 

What continues cannot return

The rivers remember not what burned

In an instant, memory relieved

Crossing the river, Nothing retrieved

In every drop, a fallen flame,

In every wave, the echo’s name

With each braid, the echo fades

Until at last the name erased

Each braid a trace, each trace a thread

Woven through what time has bled 

The past inside 

         a presence disguised

Between what eyes 

         cannot contain

Beyond the reach

         of fixed reply

All that moves 

         yet bears no name

We are the passing without an end 

What passes through us cannot mend

A wake watching, wordlessly whispering