Water - Sept 7 2020

 

Water

Sept 7 2020

Be water, he said.

How it works its way

through the tightest crevice

crack and cleft.

How it drips, inexorably,

wearing down the densest rock

in its unstoppable descent.

How it occupies space,

taking on whatever shape

nature might contrive.

And how it does all this

with patient dogged stealth.

So you will seep silently in

then pause,

biding your time

observing

           . . . waiting

                       . . . unwatched.

An incompressible liquid

that is pure, clear, calm.

Or turn into ice, and expand,

breaking out

of your sealed container

and rising to the top.

Vaporize, and vanish

in an odourless colourless gas.

I'll often find myself in a mood to write, but not moved by any particular image or idea. In fact, most of my poems originate this way. There seems to be an aesthetic of writing – the act itself; the wordplay; that intoxicating sense of flow – that is more powerful than the need to express some specific thought. This usually occurs after I've been reading and am in a well-caffeinated state. (Which, in my daily habit, are pretty much inextricably linked: my familiar comfortable chair; some good black coffee, scalding hot; and a fully charged iPad.)

So I found myself today (as I seem to most days lately!), and all it took to set me off was the word “water” catching my eye. I've written similar poems in the past – about the relentlessness of water, about water seeking its lowest level – but not quite as I have here.

I believe I first heard “be like water” in the context of the Hong Kong protests of 2019 (against China's increasing assertiveness and authoritarianism), and it was then attributed to the Kung Fu master Bruce Lee. He had used it as metaphor for being formless: not trapped in a certain mindset, but rather adaptable, changeable, capable of growth. While the protesters were using it to describe their tactics: spontaneous, flexible, and evasive – just like the flow of water. (My acknowledgement to Wikipedia for both of these explanations, some of which I have transcribed word for word.) I think this notion of evasiveness comes closest to where I went in this poem.