What the River Says...

On our last day at Sunriver, I always take Kirby to the river for one last swim. While the river is far from icy, it has been when we've been here, and Kirby plunged right in. But this place always makes me think of my favorite poem by my favorite poet:

Ask Me

by William Stafford

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.