Today I Saw The Seine

Paris is a very inspirational city. In 2003, just before the war in Iraq, as I wandered this amazing place, I was besieged by questions from people who wanted to understand what America was doing. I couldn't answer. The Seine was almost at flood stage, roiling and muddy, a river you never see in postcards. I could hear Gertrude Stein speaking her "little sentences".

Today I saw the Seine
I looked and saw the
Seine and where I looked
there I saw the Seine. So
where the Seine was I saw
it. Between the quais and
around by next to churches,
I saw the muddy Seine, So
I saw it. And it has history.
And the mystery of its history
is we are glad so glad how
glad we are glad it will
not speak its history its
muddy history so with all
its remembrances it can
not speak and for us it
should not speak to remind
us of its muddy history
and tell what it knows
so today I saw the Seine.
Today I saw the silent
Seine and I saw the silent
Seine not speak. So not
speaking loudly the Seine
the river the river Seine
spoke so loud so loudly.
And it spoke. And that
was the way it was speak-
ing. So the Seine from
its depths spoke from all
the way from the river
bottom it spoke about not
speaking. From the bottom
from the muddy bottom
it didn't speak about
speaking.