16^th March 2012

From the Australian bush I am a leaf of humanity,
a foreigner, an observer of a distant river.
until a wind chose to blow.

No one knew where it came from or where it went
but I am turned and violently tossed.
I became a craft, a floating object,
part of what is known as the kingdom of God.
It was a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.
Riding, riding, always riding, the river of life.
Made buoyant, sustained, carried by a current,
always flowing bearing me along.
Turning me to the landscape
and caressing me over stony falls.
Guiding me through narrow openings,
blessing me with movement through deep places.
I had become an inseparable part of the kingdom of God,
born of water and the spirit, the river of life.
A meandering dream, a rushing abandon, life never ceasing,
an energy flowing over all new horizons,
the moving current carries me on.
An object looms, an unavoidable obstacle,
and it intrudes to slow my journeying on.
It grabs and snares at my progress,
a dark river bank holds a sure captive.
While I dearly want my freedom,
freedom to flow, to continue the path,
the snare immovable holds me there fast.
The current that urges also wedges me tightly,
so I fight my capture to the spoiling snare.
I shout protest, "Other leaves of humanity all pass by,
Its unfair, wrong, a moral betrayal!!"
Slowly, slowly, you can't hurry the river,
my anxious buoyancy weakens,
this part of the journey has come to an end.
I slowly yield the struggle and I'm gradually enlightened
to something greater, the river flows on.Its flow encloses all the dark pain of the river,

Of all the snares, from the beginning of time.
It knows my end, shame, fear and hopeless entrapment
as if it's one pierced with a spear, blood and water comes out.
Yet the river still flows and I'm firmly within
because out from my heart, my inner being flows
the gift of living water once given to me.
The time is not yet, you can't hurry the river,
I still share the pain of that pierced side.
My particles weaken yet the weaker I feel
the stronger I become, longing for the day
the snare's grasp must be done.
The time is not yet, you can't hurry the river
but it calls and urges to wait and expect.

The river flows to its goal through a pathway of ages,
prepared for me and all in it's flow.
There was a heavy stone rolled from the tomb.
The water rises until in love I'm enveloped.
I rest in that love and I'm carried again.
God's mercy and grace bubble around me
and with countless others
I'm borne into radiant light.
I cascade and fly with a buoyant humanity
on a water bright and crystal.

An Angel showed me the source,
the throne of God and the Lamb.
There was no night or darkness.
The Lord God was light
and at his side, with him, I reigned for ever and ever.
A voice came saying "This is trustworthy and true,
the Lord, the spirit's of the prophets,
has sent his angel to show his servants
what must soon take place."

E A Curnow

3 March 2012