It is the continuous welling up from the earth
We must remember. Dawn comes, and the waters
Spring fresh, clear, vital from the earth.
Night comes, they well unabated from the dark.

Strange, is it not, that the temperature
Is always the same. The clarity is without change.
As the water blooms upward to become a petaled river
Each grain of sand below is visible as in air.

Over the oval, the mouth, the maw, the source,
We cannot see down into the cavernous mystery
Into primitive limestone releasing the clear water.
We are impelled outward from the warm, strong center.

Our bodies delight in the flow of original life.

Freely in the stream of exhilarating non history
We can walk, swim, float in the clearest shallows.
Upon us the welling up of the source,
Around us the gift of the river, the way we must go.

Our bodies delight in the flow of original life.

“Ichetucknee” appeared in Eberhart’s Florida Poems, published in 1981 by Konglomerati Press, P. O.Box 5001, Gulfport, Florida 33737.

See Also: Ichetucknee as Muse: Poetry and Theatre by Steve Robitaille