Poem: The Long Jiang River

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Open Poetry #24

Poem: The Long Jiang River

pjtalty
Member

since 2002-07-17

Posts 111
W.A., Australia

0 posted 2003-02-13 08:47 PM

Memories of the Long Jiang River
flow easily through my mind
like the slow motion replay
of a treasured film.

Images of her fall free like a waterfall
from the edge of my knowing
to the reservoir containing
all important symbols of my life.

There she is, standing by a boulder
on the banks of the Long Jiang River;
in the background locals do the family wash,
the river swiftly carries swirling suds away.

My mind’s eye zooms in on her:
Beautiful, fragile, wondrously bathed
in a mystic smile that makes the waters
glitter with a frenzy of sparkling beams.

We slowly cross the river in a ferry
powered by two women with oars.
We share the backdrop of surreal limestone peaks
with fisherfolk on Chinese river boats.

Something else we share: flooding emotions,
desperate realization that soon we must part
at the Long Jiang River, and even worse,
she must stay with her river; I must go to mine.

Patrick Talty