Listen!

In the woods stood a bridge,

ten wooden slats and a railing,

stretching over a dancing stream.

I stood and watched

while the music played,

a timpani of water over rocks,

water over rocks,

until I felt the beat in my hands,

in my feet, in my chest—

until the rocks themselves

took the shape of music,

a bass note from a boulder,

a tenor made of stone,

a cappella water droplets

singing arias as they fell.

In the glinting flash of sunlight,

the resonance of rustling leaves,

the swirl and dash of water,

there formed a symphony of stream and earth
and me.