Bridge of Souls – a poem by Susan R. Page

Bridge of Souls
                                      
 I.
As I leaned over the railing of the Millbrook Bridge
to contemplate the rusty water and the witchy leaves below,

reflections shone on the leaves, where they lay like clotted roe.
A man, sporting a wreath of silvery hair, approached.

His gait was halting, but his blue eyes danced. At first, 
he walked by; then he stopped, turned around, and asked

What are you looking at?

I’m watching the water and the way the light 
ripples copper and blue across the leaves below.

Oh, he called out, You’re doing it just for your soul!
Yes, I replied, happily surprised that he knew.

I presumed you were sent by the town 
to check on the quality of the Millbrook’s water.
                                    
 II.
It’s the soul that interests me. Now, toward the end
of my life, my view is rapidly expanding, like a brook 

in spring, playing its rushing  rhythms over the rocks 
and roots below. I now have time to know who I am

before I go. I count the time in moments now. Just to “be” 
is thrilling, and to see what’s around me, and who. 

III.
 I felt that with you, just now, he said. 

And I felt it with you.
        
I’ve come to know that doing without being was not fully living. 
All of my “doing” years brought me little peace.

And now I must go. I wished the old soul good-speed, 
and then slowly, he turned, and disappeared from view.

I returned to my place on the bridge, 
      back to the brook and the light, 
      and to the copper and the blue.

                                        
                                   

Susan R. Page lives in Concord, MA. She began writing poetry in a Lesley University workshop with Elizabeth McKim and Judith Steinbergh, and in Seamus Heaney’s Poetry Writing Seminar at Harvard. She is currently a member of Not the Rodeo Poets writing group. Her poetry has been published in The Cumberland Review and Amelia.