“Rock To River To River” by Pat Verhulst

In Memoriam...

“Rock To River To River” by Pat Verhulst, a dear alum of Mars Hill University (1937-2021)

If you’d like to have a funeral for me, Let’s keep it small.

Sometimes a group of monks from Tibet Make a festival mandala, a flat map Of Buddhist symbols, Earth, air, fire, Water. Representing the millions Of life forms, the ten thousand Fragments of the sacred world, Which is one. The symbols are Drawn in single grains Of colored sand. Very intricate And bright, it takes a week, all day, all night, every day, With silent prayers and blessings For every grain of sand. It is as big As a ping-pong table, with a single Round border to unite the many.

When the mandala is complete, They bless the sand again, Prayers for all beings. They carry the flat design

Carefully, to a river And throw it in. Nothing lasts, not this universe, Nothing.

Carefully, to a river And throw it in. Nothing lasts, not this universe, Nothing.

Their wish and intent is that the River will carry the sand everywhere. The blessing will be Carried from river to river, Dispersed to every thing and Everyone on earth. River to river to river As the water eternally moves, All one river.51

No one can step into the Same river twice, Heraclitus said.

So the water joins to all water, The sand to all sand, The blessings to all, To the one universe.

At one wooden church By a river nearby, A giant oak tree sheltered The crest of a steep hill.

Dead now, the ghost of the tree Shadows the church and the river, The steep hill below them A burying ground.

That phantom oak, That river, That graveyard, Can serve as my shrine. You can choose your own. They will never belong To anyone, but Temporally, they can represent Symbols of life and death.

You can pick out a rock Or a pebble, any size, Any place, near a river or stream That you like. Everybody needs a favorite river. One of mine begins as the Little Ivy At the top of a steep ridge near Mars Hill. And, at the Fork of Ivy, joins the Big Ivy. They travel down to Marshall, where A cliff is painted white, and a White stone angel watches The Ivy pours into the French Broad At Hot Springs, Health minerals Surge up from the river bed And the river crosses the Mountain To Newport, Tennessee. Rivers join rivers, the Nolichucky, The Little Tennessee, the Holston, The Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri rivers,

All into the great Mississippi. At the Lake Pontchartrain, the river Opens out to the Mississippi Delta And the Gulf of Mexico. From here To the Atlantic Ocean, and then Links to all the other oceans In the world.

So, for my farewell, Throw a rock or a pebble Into any river, send it with My blessing and yours, My prayers, to everything To everyone, everywhere. All one ocean All one river Every one of us Who live and die. The one great water, The one great people, That seems so many, The million things and creatures That live and die.

The one. That will be fine, That will be our farewell.

Pat Verhulst 2009