Gather By The River

Gather By The River

Gather by the river where the willow trees lean

Where water moves softly through shadows unseen

Bring all your stories and old weary bones

Leave behind sorrow carried from home

The river remembers what people forget

Names carved by grief and promises kept

Moonlight spills silver on slow moving streams

Blurring the edges of half-buried dreams

Old women whisper while staring below

Speaking of lovers from long years ago

Men with rough hands sit silent nearby

Watching the herons drift over the sky

Children throw pebbles and laughter through air

Still untouched yet by heartbreak or despair

Their voices rise light as birds into spring

A reminder of joy simple things bring

Gather by the river when life becomes hard

When loneliness settles too close to the heart

Water has always known how to forgive

Teaching exhausted souls gently to live

Night starts descending in soft shades of blue

Lanterns flicker with gold breaking through

Someone begins an old half-forgot song

Soon every tired voice is singing along

Then one by one we all drift away

Back toward the worries awaiting next day

Still the river carries each sorrow downstream

Holding our secrets inside of its gleam

#Marie381UkWriter