By Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

In a year of uncertainty and rush to judgment
I question the validity of midnights
and other deadlines I must cross
Bridges are fine
for comings and goings
for meetings and partings
for making that connection…
but you can’t plant a garden there
or watch your children grow
If you want to make a real connection
consider your neighbor opposite you
and extend yourself
You can hang a bridge on just one breath
if your spirit is strong and true. 

You and I without words
are already in conversation
You and I are more than
water under the bridge 

In a year of shifting currents
and torturous turns–
everything
that comes and goes
that rises and falls
that turns and returns
moves inside of me
I travel with the sun
and by the light of the moon
who wanders like a gypsy
along the riverbanks of my mind
while I hold the Mirror 

I am water
blessed with healing thicker than blood
and in communion with all things
I talk with the birds and the wind in the trees
and the heavens reflected above
I sing myself into rainbows
and dance on clouds in the valleys below 

You and I without words
are deep in conversation
We meet in the flow–
between the rising and falling of each breath
In the flow–
between the rising and falling of rain
In one drop of water…after it falls…
before it drops away…at the still-point–
where all things are reflected.
In that moment of transcendence
where
everything still is moving
and
everything moving is still
Even Time
as it ripples across your face
and dissolves as in a mist or a dream 

In a year of uncertainty and rush to judgment
I turn to you In you
I long to see my own reflection–
my one true face that waits for me
in a place beyond my longing.
In you
I long to hear my one true voice
that lifts me deep within myself
before the echo before me 

I cannot grasp my endless scream
nor carry it alone to where it calls me the Crossing
Here with you in the darkness
I recite the stars
and trace the face you turn toward heaven
Here with you in the light
I listen for that voice
that carries with it all the ancient voices
all the streams of consciousness
who have passed this way before–
my mother’s mother my father’s father–
all who have carried me here to you 

In a year of uncertainty and rush to judgment
I am my own defining moment
moving forward with the certainty
that I am not the same person I was an hour ago
My heart is a river And like a river
I cannot enter myself in the same way twice
I carry your river in mine–one heartbeat at a time
This is the kiss at midnight
this is the moment that counts--
my mouth as wide as the sky
my heart a vessel
emptying into an Unseen Ocean 

I am a River
and I make this crossing… with you 

previously published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal

A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and a former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, Antonia Alexandra Klimenko is widely published. Her work has appeared in (among others) Jazz and Literature, XXI Century World Literature (which she represents France) and Maintenant : Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She is the Poet in Residence. for SpokenWord Paris. Her selected poems On the Way to Invisible was recently published by The Opiate Books and is now available.

The Creative Process is created with kind support from the Jan Michalski Foundation.