Liebesgedicht by Ellen Bryant Voigt.

Liebesgedicht

I love you as my other self, as the other

self of the tree is not the pale tree

in the flat hand of the river, but the earth

that holds, is held by, the root of the tree.

This is how the earth loves the river,

and why its least fold solicits each

impulsive stream until the gathered water

makes of earth a passage to the sea.

I’d like to draw a lesson from this figure,

and find some comfort in the way the larger

world rings with such dependencies.

But if I see ourselves in earth and water,

I also see one taken from the other,

the rivening wind loosed against the tree.

.. by Ellen Bryant Voigt.