E Mail to Damniso Lopez, 150

Photograph by Kris McIntosh


E MAIL TO DAMNISO LOPEZ 150


Certain waters, H2O, baffles,
Glorify,
Exalt,

Transforms, expands,
Take one beyond what is worshipped
And known through the social formation
Of beliefs in our historical period.

These metamorphosing waters, these
Transforming,
Transfiguring

Waters

Are not baptismal waters,

Are not the waters of ink printed on maps,

Are not the waters
That splashed on the dark glasses
Of the man holding the sailboat rudder,

But these mystical, magical waters
Are the waters between cypress
And cypress knees,

The waters with bright yellow scum surface
Sprinkled
With green seeds,

These water loved by turtles and frogs,
These are the waters
That are incomprehensible,
That purify,
That changes one’s life
Beyond
What is currently known
By those who adhere to
The popular and false beliefs
Of our historical present,
Inherited and
distorted from ancient beliefs.

I go to these waters,
I go
To gaze
With reverence on these
Exalting, transforming waters.


Duane Locke

Posted over on Great Works