may our thirst for life
never outgrow our children's dreams
for a more beautiful future,
long after we're here and gone,
may we teach them
the power of prayer to water,
earth, wind and fire,
and may we live
in harmony with nature,
learning our place
among the land,
sketching our stories
slowly in the sand,
with crystal-clear intention
deliberate as the rain falls,
the ice melts,
the river runs,
and the water
flows free,
to the sea.
let us meet at the end of the Earth
and offer our breath to the sky
in silence at the water's edge.
let us pray for Mother
her veins, our rivers
her blood-spirit, our seas.
let us dip our fingertips in her sacred pools
honoring her sacrifice with steady devotion
in bare feet and open heart.
let us submerge our souls in her cool embrace
as she holds our tears in reflection
like obsidian mirrors catching dark storm clouds and sweet rain shine.
let us feel her engulf our senses
flowing within, rushing without
breathing our weathered bones alive.
let us receive her gifts as we would a song
in gentle reverie
as subtle as the wind against our skin.
and let us emerge from her depths, anew
like rainbow sunsets, rivers and rains
reincarnated into a million splendid droplets of sunrise morning dew.
if the water were to hold the secret to our story,
it's in the reflecting pools of remembrance,
in the solemnity amid the silence left
between heavy footprints in the stolen sands of time.
it's with the women who hold the pain and wisdom
of millennia in their womb,
beyond birth place or blood line,
living patient with the moon,
counting seconds until the stars align
across a sordid cosmos,
where dreams of freedom and sacred ceremony
gather in solidarity among sisters
East, North, West, and South,
to meet in prayer to water,
in celebration of these life-giving seas,
dancing feathers in the tropical summer rains,
bowing to Mother,
her blood, sweat and tears
bubbling hot
through our veins.
clouds and angels conspire
where water meets earth and air catches fire
sage smoke signal flare
past lives bleed heavy
floating to the surface
like rose petals drifting away
with the wind
blood red reflecting pools
muddied with faces of ancestral memories
crystal clear as time stands still
drip droplets fall
like forgotten tears
and fade down slow
disappearing soul in reunion with source
regeneration like death
in cells of magic, beauty beyond sweet skin
paper-thin skirts immersed
in liquid sunsets
dancing moon fancy-feathered
across deep waters
hiding shadows dark as night
blessed as dreams borrowed
from a stolen sun naked to the sky
like the backlit mystery
of her wild
untethered
divine.
gather your feathers
in conversation with sky,
soak your toes in the cool reflecting pool
of purple-pink clouds and hot sunshine,
blend your skin into the watercolor sunset
and paint your wayward spirit alive,
dance your heart across the crystalline surface
submerge your presence in communion with Divine.
Agua Bendita: A Prayer to Water is an evolving collaboration with photographer Jennifer Harter. All photos are hers and may be shared only with her permission.