It sounds distant now,
and I know it is.

For not too far away the water’s forces
carve deeper the trench
that is this canyon.

I will travel that canyon
that trench
that river

and face it as I face a life that
lays ahead.

I know not what it will bring
but the opportunities it affords
are too great to be
ignored.

I’ll face that challenge,
as have many others,
hoping to come out of it a different
person,
deepening my sense of the place
in which I find myself
in this universe.

Not really knowing what
lies when — the names
just unfamiliar labels now,
shall eventually be a part of my being
a part of who I am,
who I might become.

With this in mind I run the river
as I have dreamt and thought
and wondered.

Tomorrow will awaken me with that new
challenge, that new purpose
that new life.

And onward I will row.
Onward I will go.