Water-- a few musings, maybe something I need to write about?

"I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins."

--Langston Hughes

A friend mentioned rivers as physical things and as a means of connection, both actual and metaphorical, yesterday. I've been pondering that idea on and off since I read her blog. So many poets, so many songs, all focus on rivers in those ways. Immediately, my brain bubbled up with Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." Then, various bits and phrases from songs wandered across my brain, everything from songs that rightly belong in the early Americana songbook to one of my favorites, Carly Simon's "Let the River Run."

There is nothing more necessary and more timeless than water. Rivers, lakes, streams, the wide ocean and inland seas-- all have been written about in words of praise, wonder, and sometimes, fear. We are mostly water, in our own bodies. Water is a scarcity, water is dangerous, water is life-giving, a blessing and sustaining, life-threatening and overwhelming. 

Human activity has both reclaimed and destroyed water sources, all in service to the lives of other humans. 

Water is holy. 

I have a lot more I want to ponder on, and I'll likely never get this whole thing framed in essay form, but there are immediate things I want to think about: planet preservation, shared resources, maintaining a rational and sustainable relationship with one of the essential elements that is foundational to survival. Water was here before us, and will probably be here long after. 

Water is eternal.

Perhaps I need to work on this as a long poem. Hm.

Have a good day,

C