Come, Let Us Gather

Come, Let Us Gather,
here in the grotto of our mysteries,
of bluebonnets and paintbrushes,
where minty spring rains play messiah,
resurrecting wild things from
winter dyings.

Come, Let Us Gather,
here at the Holiest of Holies,
where the holiest of blues –
music, sky, water, the eyes of a beloved –
speaks the word incarnate,
to release our headwaters,
to swim Yanaguana dreams,
while jitterbugging with the monarchs,
amongst the milk weed. 

Come, Let Us Gather,
here in this womb of kinship,
where the silk of our Mother’s
amniotic waters wash away
the weariness of the Anthropocene. 

Come, Let Us Gather,
to re-ground ourselves for the fierce tender emergency
care of our fragile inheritance. 

This poem celebrates our kinship with the waters of the San Antonio River. It was written for Kinship with Water Outdoor Poetry Reading, sponsored by Stone in Stream/Roca en el Rio eco poets, at the Blue Hole, Headwaters at Incarnate Word, March 12, 2023. Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill is a San Antonio poet, writer, and professor of English. She is the inaugural Edward and Linda Speed Peace and Justice Fellow at St. Mary’s University, Texas, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.