River of Words

“River of Words”
This month we called out to our community, via facebook and newsletter, for favorite quotes about the River as well as originals.  We also contributed our own.  Here are all of them.
 
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. 
Langston Hughes
 
The Tao is forever undefined…it cannot be grasped…Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.
Lao Tzu
 
Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of time, when vegetation rioted the earth and big trees were kings. 
Joseph Conrad
 
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
Mark Twain
 
If anyone bring an accusation against a man and the accused go the river and leap in the river--if he sink into the river, his accuser shall take possession of his house.  But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty and he escape unhurt, then he who brought the accusation shall be put to death while he who leapt into the river shall take possession of the house that belonged to his accuser. 
 Code of Hammurabi
 
I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Mississippi, but I wrote.  And I finally sometimes got it right. 
Maya Angelou
 
you don’t have to be a fire/for/every mountain blocking you./you could be a water/and/soft river your way to freedom/too. –Options
nayyirah waheed
 
One river, many wells. 
Matthew Fox
 
No matter how full the river, it still wants to grow. 
African proverb.
 
No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.
 Heraclitus
 
You can’t cross a sea by merely staring at the water.
Rabindranath Tagore
 
May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. 
Rainer Marie Rilke
 
Have you learned the secret of the River, that there is no such thing as time?  That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains—everywhere, and that only the present exists for it, not the shadows of the past, nor the shadow of the future. 
Herman Hesse
 
There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.
Dejan Stojanovich
 
The river in front of her was black. She thought it contained many things.
Gisele Prassinos
 
I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her [Ultima] I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things.
Rudolfo Anaya
 
We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.
David Brower
 
We may be floating on Tao, but there’s nothing wrong with steering.  If Tao is like a river, it is certainly good to know where the rocks are.
Min Dao Deng
 
Original quotes from our Reno community:
 
One of my greatest love affairs is with the Truckee River.  It courses through my body and life force, inviting me to jump in, swim, and obey.
Professor Daylover
 
Life is a river, and our past is nothing more than water under the bridge. 
Reverend Levity
 
I baptized myself by immersion twice, in a waterfall in the Truckee River by the light of the Jupiter/Venus moon.  A rock appeared to the right of me that fit my palm perfectly as I was to get out of the water.
Karyn Sanz
 
You can swim upriver, stand in the middle and do nothing, or flow with the river of God’s will. 
Michelle Groy
 
River of Words, 2.0
Here are the quotes cut, pasted, and mashed up.  Professor Daylover was humbled to rearrange the brilliance of the above authors for a new river of words.  This piece was performed in our show “The River” on June 21st.    
 
Going up the Truckee River was like travelling back to rivers ancient as the world, older than the flow of human blood in human veins.  I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things.  No such thing as time.  There is another alphabet singing from every leaf, river, and sky.  But no man ever steps into the river by merely staring at the water.  You can swim up river or stand in the middle, but it cannot be grasped, Tao forever undefined. The worst poetry of our past is water under a bridge.  But I wrote, and I finally sometimes got it right, a rock that fit my palm perfectly as I get out of the water of my greatest love affair, the Truckee River coursing from the source and at the mouth, a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.  We must begin thinking like the river: no matter how full, it still wants to grow, a soft river way to freedom, not a fire afraid of the awful presence.  There is nothing wrong with steering, no forcing or holding back, the way it is with children.  May what I do flow from me at the waterfall, at the ferry, prove the accused not guilty and escape unhurt by the light of the Jupiter/Venus moon.  It contained many things, the river flowing at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains and back home to the sea, floating on Tao, whispering the secret: only the present exists, inviting me to jump in, swim, and obey.  For denial ain’t just the shadows of the past or future but the accused put to death. It is certainly good to know where the rocks are, and my soul has grown deep like the river of many wells. I have baptized myself in the river of dreams and am not the same man, not the same river.