Credentials

I have watched the river
Work its quiet craft
Through the snow.

I have laid beside two dogs
While they slept their way
Into death.

I have let children
Push me into the lake
Over and over.

I have failed
To save lives
But tried.

I have smoked cigars
Around a campfire
With good men.

I have acquired scars
Some visible, some not
Some earned, some gifts.

I have been awakened
By the splash of bears
Fishing at the dam.

I have spread the ashes
Of those
I love.

I have stayed up all night
In the company
Of poetry and whisky.

I have waited
For people to come home
Who did not.

I have smelled
The scent of apples
In the orchard breeze.

I have almost drowned
And have come very close
To being born.

I have been happily lost
In the woods
And in the bad part of town.

I have seen
The silence fall
Behind a woman's eyes.

I have watched the river
In the summer, too:
working, working at life.