Upon my birth I was a spring
From which my new life rose,
A spring upon a high green hill
I knew not where it flows.
When I was young I was a brook
A slender, shallow stream,
A brook that flowed in innocence
The future just a dream.
In my teens I was a river
Not too deep or wide,
A river fast enough to bear
Rapids I had to ride.
By twenty I was in full flow
A river broad and deep,
A flow that swept all in its path
That barely stopped to sleep.
A few years on a tribut'ry
Joined my river of life,
A tribut'ry that soon became
My soul mate and my wife.
At times my life was but a marsh
Lost amongst the reeds,
A marsh of pain and sorrow
Of unmet hopes and needs.
At times I felt I was in flood
A life beyond control,
A flood of raw emotion
That swamped my very soul.
Yet now I've reached life's delta
I'm almost at the sea,
A delta that foreshadows
The coming end of me.
I've been spring and brook and river,
From hill to sea I've run,
Different things at different times
Yet in the end they're one.
In time I'll join the ocean
To be lost a while until,
I'm taken up into the clouds
To rain on that green hill.
COPYRIGHT D M PAMMENT 2010
Comments
jennifer | February 10, 2010 - 18:01
Lovely metaphor,
J x
kheldar | February 10, 2010 - 19:26
Thank you Jennifer x :--)
shoe | February 11, 2010 - 12:03
Has a completeness, delightfully put, (though I think you are far from the delta yet!)
kheldar | February 11, 2010 - 12:25
Thanks Shirley and I'm sure (I hope) you're right, those ending verses were a projection rather than a prediction. I hope I haven't, as my mother would put it, "called down the devil". She was (is) full of happy sayings like that; if you hurt yourself doing something you really should not have been doing she would sagely say "the devil looks after his own". She once said "beware the one whose eye brows meet, for in there heart there lies deceit"; is it any wonder I pluck (yes pluck!) the gap between my eyebrows!!
That could be an i.p. I suppose, to take one of our old folks sayings (not necessarily parents) and make a poem / story from it.
Anyhoo, this is becoming more like a book than a comment so I'll shut up now. Thanks as ever for reading.
David xx :--)
shoe | February 12, 2010 - 13:13
Hmmm, should I beware then?...
Anyhoo...Yes, it would indeed make an excellent I.P, I might have a wee think,
xx
kheldar | February 13, 2010 - 16:43
Thank you so much julie, I'm pleased you found some resonance with it xx
Cavalcaderl | February 16, 2010 - 22:49
new kheldar
well done a cherry!
Really a blinder.goes straight
to the heart.
Especially the first stanza
Upon my birth I was a spring
From which my new life rose.
last stanza
I'm taken up into the clouds
To rain on that green hill.
me to spiritual lovely
It was through your "Spring and Brook and River."
julie x
kheldar | February 18, 2010 - 20:26
Hi Julie,
Sorry but I missed your comment on this, but now I've seen it its greatly appreciated. Glad you like it.
David xx