agua bendita: a prayer to water

may our thirst for life
never outgrow our children's dreams
for a more beautiful future,
long after we're here and gone,
may we teach them
the power of prayer to water,
earth, wind and fire,
and may we live
in harmony with nature,
learning our place
among the land,
sketching our stories
slowly in the sand,
with crystal-clear intention
deliberate as the rain falls,
the ice melts,
the river runs,
and the water
flows free,
to the sea.

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let us meet at the end of the Earth
and offer our breath to the sky
in silence at the water's edge.

let us pray for Mother
her veins, our rivers
her blood-spirit, our seas.

let us dip our fingertips in her sacred pools
honoring her sacrifice with steady devotion
in bare feet and open heart.

let us submerge our souls in her cool embrace
as she holds our tears in reflection
like obsidian mirrors catching dark storm clouds and sweet rain shine.

let us feel her engulf our senses
flowing within, rushing without
breathing our weathered bones alive. 

let us receive her gifts as we would a song
in gentle reverie
as subtle as the wind against our skin.

and let us emerge from her depths, anew
like rainbow sunsets, rivers and rains
reincarnated into a million splendid droplets of sunrise morning dew. 

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if the water were to hold the secret to our story,

it's in the reflecting pools of remembrance,

in the solemnity amid the silence left

between heavy footprints in the stolen sands of time. 

it's with the women who hold the pain and wisdom

of millennia in their womb, 

beyond birth place or blood line,

living patient with the moon,

counting seconds until the stars align

across a sordid cosmos,

where dreams of freedom and sacred ceremony

gather in solidarity among sisters

East, North, West, and South,

to meet in prayer to water,

in celebration of these life-giving seas,

dancing feathers in the tropical summer rains, 

bowing to Mother,

her blood, sweat and tears

bubbling hot

through our veins.

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clouds and angels conspire

where water meets earth and air catches fire

sage     smoke     signal     flare

past lives bleed heavy

floating to the surface

like rose petals        drifting away

with the wind

blood red           reflecting pools

muddied with faces of ancestral memories

crystal clear     as time        stands     still

drip droplets fall

like forgotten tears

and fade down slow

disappearing       soul    in reunion   with source

regeneration    like death

in cells of magic,    beauty      beyond sweet skin

paper-thin    skirts    immersed

in liquid sunsets

dancing moon   fancy-feathered

across deep waters

hiding shadows   dark as night

blessed as dreams   borrowed

from a stolen sun    naked to the sky

like the backlit mystery

of her wild   

untethered

divine.

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gather your feathers

in conversation with sky,

soak your toes in the cool reflecting pool

of purple-pink clouds and hot sunshine,

blend your skin into the watercolor sunset

and paint your wayward spirit alive,

dance your heart across the crystalline surface

submerge your presence in communion with Divine.

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Agua Bendita: A Prayer to Water is an evolving collaboration with photographer Jennifer Harter. All photos are hers and may be shared only with her permission.