The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow
     of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went
     down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn
     all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)

Today's poems are for caerwynx, who asked for water. Such a delightfully open-ended request! I decided to do this one as a poetry post, but then got stuck on which poem to use. I narrowed it down to two poems, but just couldn't make up my mind between them. And then I thought: Hey! I don't have to choose, I can just post both. Because who deserves two poems more than caerwynx? It was she, after all, who with her daily poetry posts during National Poetry Month back in 2003 inspired me to post poems during Advent that same year, which project ultimately led to my posting poems every week.