The river runs by me

It takes scant notice of me,

which is part of the pull,

I suppose.

I am the only creature

I can see or hear 

in this place, and one 

might think that makes me

the center oy my universe,

even for a brief moment,

but the river sings a song

that speaks another truth. 

Before you were, it says,

I am.

The editors of Tweetspeak Poetry are hosting a 30-Day, 30-Poem Challenge for Earth Month entitled, appropriately enough, Poetic Earth Month. Today, the featured poem is “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats. The poetry prompt is to write a poem about the peace you feel when you go into a secret place in our natural surroundings.

Photograph: The Meramec River as it passes the gravel bar at Shaw Nature Reserve, Franklin County, Missouri.