Inside The River

Dark, deeply. A red.All levels movingA given surface.Break this. Step down.Follow your rightFoot nakedly inTo another body.Put on the riverLike a fleeing coat,A garment of motion,Tremendous, immortal.Find a still root

To hold you in it.Let flowing createA new, inner being:As the source in the mountainGives water in pulses,These can be felt atThe heart of the current.And here it is onlyOne wandering stepForth, to the sea.Your freed hair floatingOut of your brain,

Wait for a comingAnd swimming idea.Live like the deadIn their flying feeling.Loom as a ghostWhen life pours through it.Crouch in the secretReleased undergroundWith the earth of the fieldsAll around you, goneInto purposeful grainsThat stream like dust

In a holy hallway.Weight more changedThan that of oneNow being born,Let go the root.Move with the worldAs the deep dead move,Opposed to nothing.Release. Enter the seaLike a winding wind.No. Rise. Draw breath.Sing. See no one.

From Drowning with Others (1962)