I am gentle on a dark quiet river   It is deep and dark and soft and wary   I am silent   It is quiet, huge forms loom on the banks--the bodies   of great whales so long dead, so long dead   I pass beneath their shapes   and they are like the enormous mute statues of gods   which lined the ancient roads   there is not a sound, there is no movement the black water does not   reflect my face   I am not afraid