Topic: Life's River
Phil's excellent poem "Children" got me thinking about a song I wrote about 25 years ago when I was still into Whitewater Kayaking. I wanted to look at life from a paddler's perspective and use the river as a metaphor for life but then got the river metaphor wrapped inside a train metaphor. Zurf has heard me play it as a song, but I decided to post it as a poem. - DE
Life's River
We are all just pilgrims with paddles and kayaks
Floating down the stream of life and never looking back
And though we keep drifting we would like to remain
But the river keeps on rolling like a west-bound train
The current swiftly takes us by those people on the shore
Past places and faces that we will see no more
And though we keep drifting, we would like to remain
But that river keeps on rolling like a west-bound train
We eddy hop, we try to stop but we keep drifting on
'Til one day we look back wondering where the time has gone
Though we try to drop an anchor the chain will always break
We're at the mercy of the river and the choices that we make
The current swiftly takes us by those people on the shore
Past places and faces that we will see no more
And though we keep drifting, we would like to remain
But that river keeps on rolling like a west-bound train
I've seen my share of rapids and I've seen my share of falls
But my boat has held together and got me through them all
And all along the journey there's been times of joy and woe
I just grip my paddle tighter and move on with the flow
The current swiftly takes me by those people on the shore
Past places and faces that I will see no more
And though I keep drifting, I would like to remain
But that river keeps on rolling like a west-bound train
Some day the river's gonna end and we'll float out on the tide
Where we can rest forever where the water's deep and wide
Then we'll look upstream and you'll hear this last refrain
"That river kept us rolling like some west-bound train"
Yeah, that river kept us rolling like some west-bound train
