This poem is by Lucille Clifton, and I chose it because the poem suggests a cyclical nature of time and history. As I prepared for this trip, I could not help but feel that the dark forces that lead to the holocaust are emerging again in our century.
The Mississippi River Empties Into the Gulf
and the gulf enters the sea and so forth,
none of them emptying anything,
all of them carrying yesterday
forever on their white tipped backs,
all of them dragging forward tomorrow.
it is the great circulation
of the earth’s body, like the blood
of the gods, this river in which the past
is always flowing. every water
is the same water coming round.
everyday someone is standing on the edge
of this river, staring into time,
whispering mistakenly:
only here. only now.