New Ground

A river will bite
at the bank that bars its way.
Backed up against the wall of itself,
like our own self welling up,
it insists on change.

The once gentle
shuffling of stones and
spreading of sand is replaced with
energy hurled at the sides
of an outgrown self.

It can look, and feel, violent
to protest the bank,
to press back on that which
blocks us,but let’s not judge.

Whatever the river does,
whether push, rush, rest or glide,
you never hear it condemn itself
for the need
to carve new ground.