Two Rivers

  —for the brave souls
      in the dialog circle
       at Two Rivers CI

One river flows above ground—

everyone can see it shining

across the land, following the valley

and shaping the valley, never at rest.

And some people say, I know who

you are… I know what you’ve done…

what you lost… where you came from…

where you are going. I know.

But what do they know of you, really?

For another river flows below all that,

invisible, at the speed of a dream

inside you—intuitive, curious, innocent.

And you say, I know who I want to be…

I know what I’ve learned… I know what I love…

I need to know who I really am. So you remember,

you wonder, you write, you shape story,

and you say to yourself on the page,

Hidden river, spill your secrets

at the wellspring. I hold forth

my cup that no one else can see.

—Kim Stafford
Oregon Poet Laureate
17 November 2018