Murals
Water in Richmond / NIAD
Christopher Castle with the National Institute of Art and Disabilities, Richmond, California
Water in Richmond - Mapping the Soul of the City
Sshh-Sshh-Sshh
A poem for the Richmond creek mapping project,
Mapping the Soul of the City
by
Gregory Scott, Lisa Blevens, Susan Wise,
Angela Rogers, Gina Namkung, Tamara Lynn Simon, Alice Wong, Martha Lane, Kathy Davis and
Tammy Harper, students/poets writing under the supervision of Mimi Albert, California Arts Council Writer-in-Residence at NIAD, 2002.
There are lakes here too
Lake Elizabeth, Lake Chabot, Lake Merritt,
But I don’t know about no lake in Richmond.
We have streams here too
Any body seen a stream
Or a brook?
No.
What is a stream anyway.
It’s a little river
A small river.
Is there on e in Berkeley?
Is there one in Richmond?
We don’t see them anyway.
Maybe they’re hiding.
Hiding in the mountains somewhere
Hiding in the woods
Why don’t we see them?
Maybe because we’re not looking for them.
Where could they be?
One could be in your back yard.
But they go underground.
They come from the snow in the mountains
That melts
And they come down from the hills where the
Water goes
And they go into the Bay
But they go underground
So we don’t see them
Until they come up and water
All the plants!
At the edge of the Bay
There are shells and rocks Trees and ditches filled with water
We call that kind of land ‘shallows’
Or marshes or wetlands
San Francisco Bay
Salt water flows into the ocean
Rain makes rivers higher
Rivers and streams, lakes
Blue bay Seaweed jellyfish stinging my neighbor
Foamy white river water goes last
On bottom of river, sandy
Blue lake bottom red mud
River with people, mermaids, sand, big rocks
Water over rock
Flows sh-sh-sh
Reflections in still water lake
San Francisco Bay
Currents move, run
Into the ocean
The Pacific Ocean
The Peaceful Ocean
Stormy ocean
Big waves
Cold ocean
Frostbite ocean
Cold bay
A lot of light on the bay
Foamy water
Boats at the docks
Are there submarines in the Bay?
They do have them passing through
I heard submarines talking to the Coast Guard
On my scanner machine
I got a scanner that picks up the radio,
All kinds of ships passing through,
Bringing in stuff.
Bringing clothes, produce, fish,
Cars
Back and forth to other countries…
Container ships all kinds of ships out there.
Even a yellow submarine.
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Copyright ©2022 Christopher Castle