Poem of the month

River is the Plural of Rain

by Rebecca Gethin

‘Each of us is water’ Carole Satyamurti

From a mouth of soil among sedge and willow
water calls out on its journey
to all its other selves: follow

follow us from the shallows into the deep. Below
the surface currents strain their sinews
spilling white foam over stones to follow

the earth vein where it flows,
furling and ravelling together
as stream follows after stream.

Its pulse is the undertow,
its pores are the rain,
and every drop is dreaming of sky.

Rebecca Gethin lives on Dartmoor where she teaches poetry at the prison. She is also a frequent visitor to the mountainous valleys of Italy, hence perhaps the different landscapes evoked by this deceptively simple poem. It is the title poem from her first collection published in 2009 by Overstep Books, an independent press founded by the poet and translator Anne Born who died last year.