You, who with your curious mind
and knowing sense,
watch me as if you watch still water,
wondering if my calm were some pretence,
not seeing the troubled depths,
the swift dark currents of my turbulence.
And yet a day can stretch its calm
wide open like water lilies,
and an hour or two be shared at ease.
My hands tell you nothing my eyes
do not know, and if at times we disagree
we can laugh, because human touch never lies.
You, who tell me with a smile
of your vulnerability,
catch me watching the play of sunlight
on waters that flow too fast, your alacrity
no easy match for silent deeps,
but something of what you are flows into me.
And if, I thought, we'd not divide
this living hour with compromise,
withhold a portion of our solitude,
perhaps we'd find in each other, if we're wise,
a moving stillness that yet moves to find
in a paradox of waters a truth we'd recognize.
David Beatty
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-water-moving-water/
