Listen to the poem here:

Transcript

today, by the side of the river

10:22

i press my hands together
to form a bowl
hands imperfect container
leak
spill

on brand
embodiment
embodiment
entangling networks
enthusiastic people
exchanging fluids

1:57
how does time behave besides moving water??

5:48
yes, rivers are so long and so everywhere

radiance
surprise
recognition

ripple
lick

at the narrowest
shallowest part of the rhine
the siren lorelei waits for her lover
her name

lo
re
lei

translates to
murmur rock
murmuring rock

heavy currents and a small waterfall
create a murmuring sound
a special echo the rock produces
acts as a sort of amplifier

lo lo lo
re
lei lei
water
raining

10:13
across

boat whirls up sediment

we walk and walk
feet ache

sounds, the air
airplanes
sun bright
pinching my eyes

i don’t have to

lo lo lo

re
lei lei

over the bridge in silence

someone brought boiled eggs for lunch
my feet sink into mud
we walk by a bunker

im always trying to take my pictures in a way there’s seemingly no human traces
there’s concrete pillar
sticking out of the sand
a horse neighs
twice

3:41

invisible pollution
decide what’s ok to put into the river
risk management protocol
body as sensor
reclamation
property
property
theft

to amputate a river
6 brown horses, 1 white
humid air
walking on grass

crispy sounds

according to legend
the beautiful lo re lei betrayed by her love
is accused of bewitching men and causing their death

whisper
lap
murmur
pull

05:05
e writes
river as an archive of nothing ?
or maybe how everything passes through currents
stories
an archive of the transient

11:42
while we wait for everyone to get off the boat
we watch someone catch a sturgeon
the fish is huge
fights to stay in the water
pushed down onto the ground
mouth forced open to remove hook
grabbed by the tail and lifted up
posed with in a photo
thrown back into the water

flow
flower
stream
pour

06:27
how can we articulate the river as one of wonder and something that speaks to us?

12:19
she said how do our thoughts sound in our own language?
she said how do you feel there?

07:58

08:36
how can thinking about water pipes and sewage systems show how people and places are connected?

instead of being sentenced to death
she is sent to a nunnery
on the way there with three knights
they stop at a rock

she asks to climb it to see the rhine one last time
to see the rhine one last time

when she thinks she saw her lover in the water
falls to her death

falls to her death
from then on
the rock is said to echo her name

5:30
i want to open my mouth
take a mouthful of river

last night I dreamt
huge waves rolling onto a sandy beach
a thin veil-like waterfall dropping into the sea
a deep, murky puddle along a stone path slowly soaking into the land

without the line there would be no flooding

perhaps
if taking is not natural there is some use in borrowing