Water Mother

I breath the waves;

my age is measured 

in their rise and fall.

But old as I am 

there was a time before even I existed.

In that time, 

in that world of cracked raw rock, 

there was no water

and no life,

for life could not begin without me.

For a time that seemed forever

all remained dry.

But when the rains began, they fell 

for a time that seemed forever,

and in their falling 

was my beginning.

O Mare Creatrix!

Beloved daughter of my heart’s mysteries

whom I have enfolded in my depths forever,

this pain that you bear is a passing thing;

the sign of a soul overwhelmed by wonder.

Soon you will understand everything.

You will number without effort

the times that my waves rise and fall

in a thousand years.

You will describe perfectly

the traceries of my changing currents,

both as they are now

and as they will become

in an undreamed future.

Part of you has always longed for this.

Part of you has always known 

all that you are about to learn:

a memory recovered in the silence

between two waves,

in the silence

between two lives.