Eel River, North Fork   Meandering like rivers, all our lives embanked within themselves, their courses slow and patiently devoted to arriving nevertheless where they must, they flow deeper, fuller for the longer journey. Metaphors cool; they turn dead and cold as stone, but still the icy water burns its designs into the rocks that mark its course, etching electric passage as it goes with lively shaping quickness; its spirit knows enough of rugged ground to go under it and over it and through it; we too, we're not made just of doubt, or hope or fear or even of belief, but of wonder.     © Michael Fleming Covelo, California October 1989