Tom Gibbs

Both Food and Water
(Excerpt from the long poem The Water Gospel)

For a moment,
quiet holds only soft sounds
in its net. The river
runs slow in its banks. Grasses
translate the breeze
into whispers.

The low voices
of three men in a boat
drift south. The men wave
but nothing more.

I strike a pomegranate
against a stone to pierce
its skin. Food and water both
tumble into my hands
as brilliant as rubies
but worth so much more. An oasis
in a single sphere.

Others gather near me
as if the wind
has called them here
and maybe it has.  Some say
they know me.
Some say they’ve seen me
work signs. Some scoff
and want proof. They all
want to see.

Confine faith to only
what you see
and you’ll never
be certain of faith.

Can you see the orchard
in my hand?

Weigh only one of these seeds
and record its weight
as this or that
according to the scale
and you’ll leave its weight
unweighed.

A dry seed in dry ground
is a body without soul.
All that comes from it
is dust.

Sow these seeds on the ground. If only one
germinates,
it doubles its weight. Plant it in soil
fertile with possibility,
make your hand a cup
and scatter this river like rain
over the new growth.

Day by day
its weight increases
until the root
becomes the shoot, the shoot
the sapling and from the sapling
the tree grows
into its own. The tree flowers,
bears fruit
and that fruit is both food
and water.

You know this.
It’s a sign you see
with your own eyes
season after season.

You know the great waters
grow the seed of the land
into the fruitful fields.

What does the seed weigh now?

Tom Gibbs has been an editor, printer, itinerant storyteller, and teacher and is always a poet. His work has appeared in America, Concho River Review, Et Cetera, Jefferson Review, and other publications.

Copyright © 2007 by Tommy Gibbs. All Rights Reserved.

This page was published in May 2007.

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