Suffrage to Water

Oh water, that warms us
and dissolves us, oh medium
of our chemistry, oh breaker
of our bonds, oh drowner, oh sac
of life, oh maker of borders, oh grinder
of stone, oh thunderstorm,
oh frost, oh falls, oh storm surge --
spare us. From the slosh
of the jug, spare us. From the sting
of salt, spare us. From the lonely hish
of traffic, spare us. From hail,
from ice, from wave, spare us.
From the dredging of lakes,
from the grinning lip
of the well, from losing our names
like river in ocean, water,
spare us. We praise you, water,
your weathering patience,
your thickness in lungs,
your wholeness in drops, your selfless
displacement, your ceaseless swing
of sea. We praise you, water.
Source and mouth, we praise you.
Remember us, water.
Well and pump, remember us,
blood and lymph, remember us,
flood and dam, remember us,
comet and icecap, remember us.
Remember us, water, oh maker,
oh changer, oh restless, oh universal
solvent, oh born
in burning, oh breath
of stars, oh fine
and swirling
snow.

_______

An older poem -- one of my favourites -- to which I've made a few revisions. I think it's ready to go out again. I'm trying to put together a package of devotionals to send to the Missouri Review, where they are friendly to long poems and give them space to unfold. Revising "Book of Wisdom" is a hard -- it swept me up when I wrote it, and I can't seem to get back to where it swept me. My readers in this space haven't liked "Wisdom" in general, but I think it could be a knock out one day.