what a hard time
the Hudson River has had
trying to get to the sea
it seemed easy enough to
rise out of Tear of
the Cloud and tumble
and run in little skips
and jumps   draining
          a swamp here and
    there     acquiring
streams and other smaller
rivers with similar
longings for the wide
imagined water
suddenly
there’s Poughkeepsie
except for its spelling
an ordinary town but
the great heaving
ocean sixty miles away is
determined to reach
that town every day
and twice a day   in fact
drowning the Hudson River
in salt and mud
it is the moon’s tidal
power over all the waters
of this earth at war with
gravity    the Hudson
perseveres   moving down
down    dignified
slower    look it has
become our Lordly Hudson
hardly flowing
                                             and we are
now in a poem by the poet
Paul Goodman    be quiet heart
home home
                   then the sea