Joel Clarke

THE FLOW

 The silver river flows steadily above the heads of mortals
Its waters: deep and dark
Its current: strong but slow
Carrying everything and nothing
In its wide and mighty flow
 
In the Stygian depths lie shimmering jewels
An endless cloud of diamonds
They set the riverbed ablaze in a spectacle of colour
That bleeds and expands through the black
 
Each jewel has a story to tell
And eagerly propels it through the waters
as far
and as fast
as possible
The stories tell an old tale of the generations before time
And their tellers may now thrive
But their tellers may now not
 
In the dizzying darkness, the glistening whirlpool swirls
and swirls
and swirls
As if all life and existence takes part
In a perpetual ceilidh
And the celestial bodies glow red and hot
Yet grin away, and laugh, and dance
 
The Jeweller is there in the dance
in the stories
in the black
He stands in the flow
Handcrafting each and every jewel
And gently placing it in the riverbed
His work is slow, but precise
Complete, but incomplete
Beautiful, but changing
And he sees it all
And he knows it all
And he loves it all
 
A wonder that the King of the starry sea
Would love, watch over, and die for me

Luke Saunders' song version of this poem