Once I hurtled ever on
Twisting here and thither
Once I rumbled and I rolled
Once I was the river
Now I gurgle and I gasp
Where once I rushed and roared
As cattle steal a thirsty gulp
Which I can ill afford
Once great men observed and wrote
Each one doubting never
That while man stumbles and he fails
I’d go on forever
They dreamed of all I’d oversee
With nature’s right divine
To watch unmoved and unperturbed
The unfurling grand design
They thought of soldiers, writers, kings
Who’d, come their hour, be gone
While beyond love and loss and life
I’d journey ever on
And so I’d flow forevermore
Thunderous and vast
My watch I’d keep and keep long after
Man had breathed his last
But I have seen the will of man
That blinds his doubts to whether
That right divine might not be his
To journey on forever
For great men made me promise that
Which I cannot deliver
Man has come and man goes on
Where once I was the river
Written by ICS Alumni John Payne (January - March 2016 cycle, El Bramadero, Nicaragua)
