A River
By Ken Grace
Where this thing ends
and that begins
is not certain.
Not just the obvious,
a river,
but happiness and certainty.
When did fear end,
when did you decide to shed
one life
and when did your new life begin?
What if it has not yet begun,
or what if it has already
begun and ended,
and you didn’t notice
and now you have started
yet another new life and failed,
also,
to notice that?
When does a poem begin?
It may be long before
the first word appears;
it may have been thinking itself
for some time
before the poet sees it
and it may be
that it never ends,
or ends well before
the poet realises
it has ended,
and so continues
long after
it has served its purpose.
What seems obvious may not be,
or what seems obvious now
may not have been
apparent earlier,
and what seems obvious now
may later prove
to have been a mirage.
Where does ending end,
or perhaps that has happened
too, and again
we did not notice,
but either way
there may be nothing more to say,
or everything,
and we will not know
until we get there.
Ken Grace is a poet and the partner of ANZCAL Master Coach Bhavna Champion. Bhavna shared it recently at a coaching gathering. We thank Ken for his generous permission in allowing us to publish this poem in our newsletter.