March 26, 2023
Rapids
Your roiling, rushing spill infuses all
with tumbling clash, no silent shimmer,
logan green floating along embedded rock.
Sage marks its gold presence above and below
this cacophonic ridge. How swift the waters slide
into your white churn, how charged their ionic
splash! Cautiously I amble past, behold the quick
release to smoother idling trek, raucous passage
cleared for a glad descent downstream.
How muted the roar now, like memory resting
on a stoop. I recall the rapids of my own desert
channel. Midstream, no funneled grace appears,
no easy way out of cold and stinging spray.
One loses ground, stones underfoot
slick with hidden algae. The soul winces.
Somehow the furor dissipates, dizzying turmoil
gives way to steadier beat, calmer pace,
deeper knowing. Bounding whirlpools become
but gentle eddies, restoring balm. How I relish
this sloping tide, take in its quiet salve.
Even quaking aspen rest after leaves fall.
Praise the rapids for all the sudden commotion
they stir to foam, and for the tuck of waves back
down the moving, living path, breath flowing
as birdsong, clear and lilting, rises once more.
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© the author
by Carol Barrett
Carol Barrett directs the Creative Writing Certificate Program for Union Institute & University. She has published two volumes of poetry and one of creative nonfiction. A former NEA Fellow in poetry, Carol has lived in nine states and in England.