Just downstream from that dark place Where last beats fell and waters churned A man looked down upon his face In reverie, his thoughts did turn To follow the river is to follow the arc It does not drift, it does not wait Find its course with limb and mind There walks a man There runs his fate To follow the river is to follow the thread It does not lie, it does not leave Drowning stones there as he does He comes to think He comes to breathe Something of that ember lives! He feels it bide, he feels it wake Looking out, but at itself As if to speak As if to make His vision forming, flowing now In tumbling verse, in melting song Crafting words there as he does They echo out They echo on But a vessel, alive For a time, I would thrive That was all Nothing more lay below it But a vessel, adrift Not a theft, nor a gift That was all But a pulse, but a poet To drink from the river is to meet with the arc And drink until quenched The man did But a vessel, adrift Not a theft, nor a gift That was all But a pulse