These Running Waters

This poem was written on 9/11/2001. While sitting on a bench on my college campus wondering how everyone around me could act like it was any other day, I found myself paralyzed by a fear that what had happened in New York could happen anywhere, and I needed to escape to somewhere I felt safe. Other poetry came from that day that will have a place of its own, but this is what came from that moment.


Peaceful, serene, so the river runs by,
With all the stars in heaven smiling down from the sky.

Birds of the night here are bats flitting by,
Catching dinner, with sonar, as they fly.

Splash on the water, a fish jumped there!
Perhaps snatching a mosquito from the fresh summer air.

A light, warm breeze washes over my skin,
Perfectly contrasting the cool water my feet dangle in.

Nowhere am I so free of fear,
With the sounds of nature so deliciously near,
Nowhere am I more at peace than here,
By these running waters I hold so dear.