Reclaim

by William Rand

There shall come a great and glorious raging

trembling from the depths of all the Created.

No stone unshaken, no water untroubled.

Rising from the depths, falling from the heights

Love that once gave birth to the world,

Shall reclaim the world in the waters of the womb

Flesh and blood as fields and streams

Wind and rocks as breath and bone

Those who once

found death

in the dried places

Shall instead find 

breath

in the swaying willow

pulse

in the reaching redwood

  reach

in the steadfast acacia

  soul

in the eyes of the aspen

    depth

in the sturdy trunk of oak

    flame

in the maple leaf

  resolve

in the infinite evergreen

And the patient desert shall be rewarded

for waters shall break forth,

soaking the arroyo

awakening river beds

healing the dried cracks,

who wait with parched breath…

for the coming of the rushing,

the flowing, and moving

the nourishing,

strengthening,

enlivening pulse of living water

And the rising dawn shall light the new way.