Painting: Reserved

(The stream that flows out of this reservoir is called St. Joseph’s Creek. It flows through the town below, out into the countryside and across a First Nations Reservation where it joins the St. Mary’s River just before it’s confluence with the Kootenay River. After a brief sojourn across the border, the Kootenay turns north, back into Canada, and waters a wide valley where fruit is grown commercially.)

Reflection on the Reservoir

Idle in the wild

the waters

reserved by earthen dam

wait

Welling up over the wall

the outpouring spills

to thirsty valley

surging gushing rushing

on its pilgrimage

to freedom

babbling ecstatic companions

overturn hapless pebbles

and undercut established banks

between soccer and tennis scores

beside disciplined lawns

through sweet barbeque smoke

under red painted bridges

inside covert culverts

behind rainbow-puddled gas stations

over destitute shopping carts

past sitting walkers

around rusted wrecks

amid static mobile homes

Without reserve they flow

through Reserve

until St Joseph pouring at last

into St. Mary’s joy

is carried by her abundance

to greater confluence

and wide hillsides of heavy orchards

In the reservoir

the congregation of waters

held back in saturated bed of clay

deep in stillness

dark in secrets

ceases striving

and reflects

ruby opulence

in golden autumnal glory

Lord

I have watched

waiting

in saturated bed of  tears

eager for my turn

to burst over damming reserve

to bring tribute to tributary

to whirl and dance in eddies of joy

to shout the songs

of sky-glittered brook

to journey to ripened fruitful fields

Lord

here

subdued in the secret depth

where you make

your thoughts known

still my heart

that might I reflect

your glory