World Class Poetry Blog

Religious Poem of the Day: “Because We Are Water”
15 April 2008, the poet @ 10:34 pm

If you haven’t noticed by now, many of the religious poems in this National Poetry Month series are poems that are not religious in the strict sense word. Rather, they are religious in the broad philosophical meaning of the word “religious.” What I mean is, they inextricably advance a worldview that is tied to a particular religion or allude to a religious philosophy through imagery or language. “Because We Are Water” by Brian Michael Tracy is such a poem.

I could have chosen one of several poems from Driving With Dante to be the religious poem of the day. Upon reading this chapbook from a versatile and creative poet, the logical and most obvious choice would have been “Visions of Saint George.” But I am not very fond of the obvious. I prefer subtlety in most cases and when subtlety isn’t proper, a good swift kick in the … well, let’s just leave it at subtlety.

“Because We Are Water” is about as subtle as you can get. It fits in with Brian Michael Tracy’s meditative tradition of yoga, which he is well into. All through Driving With Dante, you can see hints of Brian’s philosophy, the Eastern notion that nature is truth, truth is beauty, and beauty is nature’s song.

There is a universality to Driving With Dante, and even more so to “Because We Are Water.” That’s why I have chosen it as today’s religious poem. It may not be overtly religious, but it is religious in the philosophical sense. It is religious in the sense that Man is nature and nature was made for Man. “Because We Are Water” speaks volumes and in the molecules of the ocean, if you pay attention enough, you can see your own sweet reflection.

Because We Are Water

Out on the horizon you can see the waves.
They play with one another as brother and sister
conceived from the same watery womb.
Once at shore they close their eyes and fall
leaving passion and foam behind for the others,
those running in polka dot suits
blue shovels in hand
knees and toes in mud
running at the waves and their rhythm
their coming and going
going and coming
at their feet    beyond their feet
then back again.

Standing knee deep in its clammy calm
with their polka dots and blue shovels
they seem to understand the ocean's ardent returns
for they themselves are water
because they too feel the pull of the tides,
they too shall be forever caught
between the seduction of the horizon
and a strange devotion to shore.

Read a full review of Driving With Dante or buy the book from Amazon.com.

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