All the rivers run to the Mississippi.

The Amazon, the Nile, the Yangtze, the Ganges,
the piranhas, the dhows, the ducks, and the dead.
From Itasca to the source they come,
the Ob, the Euphrates, revolutionaries and reeds,
refractions of silt and of self,
on longboats and junks, tugboats and rafts,
the Lena, the Congo, the Yellow, the Seine.

All the rivers run to the Mississippi.

Ride the steamers from Dubuque to Davenport,
from Hannibal to St. Louis, prism of hardship and pain,
the Thames, the Mekong, by fado, flamenco,
gospels, spirituals, bolero, and tango,
from Jackson to Memphis, from Helena to Clarksdale,
pour their stories into the Delta,
their sorrows into the redemption of song.

All the rivers run to the Mississippi.

The Volga, the Rhine, Nantaro, Nyaborongo,
by headwaters and streams,
morna, enka, bossa, and chant,
hop the paddleboats from Rosedale to Greenville,
steer the barges from Vicksburg to Baton Rouge,
Natchez to New Orleans, a confluence of currents,
the Zambezi, the Tagus, the Purus, the Brahma.

Because all the rivers run to the blues.

By Clifford Bernier, EC Poetry & Prose Member

About the Author

Clifford Bernier’s The Silent Art won the Gival Press Poetry Award. He is also the author of Dark Berries and Earth Suite, each selected by the Montserrat Review as a Best Chapbook. He has two forthcoming books, Ocean Suite and Bakary and the River. He appears in The Write Blend poetry circle collection, among other print and online journals and anthologies. In addition, he appears on harmonica in the Portuguese Accumulated Dust world music series and is featured on the EP Post-Columbian America. He has been featured in readings in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Washington, DC area, including the Library of Congress, the Arts Club of Washington, George Washington University (where he is a member of the Washington Writer’s Collection), and the Bethesda Writer’s Center. He has been a reader for the Washington Prize and a judge for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud recitation contest. From 2003-2008, he hosted the Poesis reading series in Arlington, Virginia and performed with the Jazzpoetry band at venues in and around Washington, DC. He has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and a Best of the Net Award. He lives with his family in Alexandria, Virginia.

Webite: cliffbernier.com

Feature Photo by Tom Fisk

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