Each of us is water    Carole Satyamurti

From a mouth of soil among sedge and willow
water calls out on its journey
to all its other selves: follow

follow us from the shallows into the deep. Below
the surface currents strain their sinews
spilling white foam over stones to follow

the earth vein where it flows,
furling and ravelling together
as stream follows after stream. 

Its pulse is the undertow,
its pores are the rain,
and every drop is dreaming of sky.

by Rebecca Gethin

‘River is the Plural of Rain’ is copyright © Rebecca Gethin, 2009. It is reprinted from River is the Plural of Rain by permission of Oversteps Books.

Notes from Oversteps:

Rebecca Gethin’s first collection, River is the Plural of Rain, named after this poem, was published in 2009 by Oversteps Books. Rebecca lives on Dartmoor in Devon, but also returns frequently to the mountainous valley in Italy where her ancestors lived. She teaches poetry at Dartmoor Prison, and has recently published her first novel, Liar Dice. You can find out more about Rebecca Gethin at this link, where you can also read another poem from the collection.

Oversteps Books publishes some of the best in contemporary poetry, covering a wide range of established and new poets. There is a rigorous editorial policy, and the books are produced to the highest standards both in terms of editorial accuracy and the beauty of the finished books. Oversteps poets also give regular poetry readings at festivals and other events. Oversteps Books was founded in 1992 by the poet and translator, Anne Born (1924–2011). The poet and lecturer, Alwyn Marriage, became Managing Editor in 2008. You can find out more about the press here, and sign up for Oversteps’s mailing list.

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.