The River

Oh river, you flow onward still, You shape the land, you forge the hill, In currents deep, the past you trace, A mirror for the sky’s embrace.

With whispers to the stones you sing, Of ancient tales that time will bring, Through valleys low and mountains high, All life flows down, beneath the sky.

You carry man’s dreams, hopes and fears, The joys, the sorrows, the unwept tears, Will you remember, as you roll, The fragile core of the human soul?

• Robert Penn Warren