Co-authored by Martyn Brown and Trevor M Landers

With apologies to Langston Hughes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Sullivan

The stillness and serenity
The tears of this land sluicing sediment southward
The burble of water an entreaty
To better times, finally living,
not just valiantly clinging on
long years of mangled feelings & outrageous plight
half in strife, half in sheer survival
I have seen these waters stealing moments
onward, like the stream of life
rushing plainly with the joy of motion
onward, to the day of cessation
we must plan to go out a river
let no moss cling to our stones
be smooth by the caress of our mother
as primitive and effective as ever
We can see our coloured faces
Floating on the shaken pool
Down in cool places, dim and very cool
Ponder deeper wisdom, dark or translucent
Let nature carry us away like a surrendered leaf
Our souls have grown swift like the Taramoukou stream.