Standing at the lake
by the gazebo in Kambarang
second spring 
again.

I’m pondering
the way the lake
is like an eye 
in the ecosystem looking out—
I’m wondering what it’s looking upon.
Is the body the whole catchment?
Is the lake the whole catchment?

Once it looked upon a cosmos
full of life and wording.
Now that same life is in the Earth,
wording forth, like a spring.
This place is not a spring,
but the deeper springing
is here yet.
I’m pondering the stream 
that flows into the world
from the East.
I’m pondering this older,
Indigenous stream.
And I’m pondering 
the Western one.

The Western one is newer,
and yet needs to begin
to move,
to meet the other streams
more truly,
at greater depth.
Where are those who truly
stand in this stream?

As I’m pondering this a turtle rises,
sticking its head above the waterline,
then quickly dives again.
It does this three times,
and is gone.