Haibun: Water's Reign
Maybe for you it is an ocean, but for me it was Read Creek in the unpopulated part of New York’s Catskills Mountains that would come to define my summers. Always, when the summer heat became unbearable, only the movement of water could wash it away. Only the play in the water could make summer glorious.
You see, all summer, for me it was the creek bed where I lived. I could move each rock to build that day’s vision, a dam, or a city. Yet another day, I would run full sprint down the loose rock to jump as high and as far into the flow of water as I could. All busy, all cooled by the pulsing veins of the mountain springs. Busy, busy, busy like a kid with all that summer heat waved away by the creek’s ruling scepter.
So recently, with my sister and her kids, we were jumping into the water that cuts between the cliffs and cacti of the Tonto National Forest, we were on the Salt River. With temperatures rising away from the water, the kids were busy, very busy, moving rocks, splashing, jumping off ledges, and playing. They could set out to their imaginations and laughter because the river had us. The river held off the heat. The river had summer. And we relaxed into her reign.
hail this river’s crown
to rule all around. she reigns!
blue skies, warmth, summer
You see, all summer, for me it was the creek bed where I lived. I could move each rock to build that day’s vision, a dam, or a city. Yet another day, I would run full sprint down the loose rock to jump as high and as far into the flow of water as I could. All busy, all cooled by the pulsing veins of the mountain springs. Busy, busy, busy like a kid with all that summer heat waved away by the creek’s ruling scepter.
So recently, with my sister and her kids, we were jumping into the water that cuts between the cliffs and cacti of the Tonto National Forest, we were on the Salt River. With temperatures rising away from the water, the kids were busy, very busy, moving rocks, splashing, jumping off ledges, and playing. They could set out to their imaginations and laughter because the river had us. The river held off the heat. The river had summer. And we relaxed into her reign.
hail this river’s crown
to rule all around. she reigns!
blue skies, warmth, summer
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| & Haiku: River's Crown |
