POETRY | Root River Current Tribute 

The Root River Current

Stories that are of the moment

But ever flowing through the landscape

Carving channels, forming banks

Both reflecting and creating

Independent and connected.

Our stories don’t stand still

They enter a river of awareness

Like raindrops from a storm

Or ice melt that brings news of the ages

Or springs that bubble up through limestone – Clear, cold, and refreshing

Our photographs don’t stop at the eyes.

They speak a heart language

Expressed in smiles or tears.

They reach for the soul

Tugging at its truest parts

To tell a more nuanced narrative of our lives.

Our poems and songs and art make us pause.

Demanding quiet minds,

To hear the message in a whisper 

Or dive deeper into meanings and metaphors

Melodies and meters

Where skimming the surface would leave them unseen and unheard.

Julie Little premieres her Tribute to Root River Current at an arts reception in November 2025. (Photo by Julie Fryer)

A fork in the river,

A branch of the mainstream but different.

The Current has many voices

And welcomes more.

It yearns for the whole of the Driftless

From towering bluffs to sunny hillsides to shady valleys.

Like the Root, it has a gentle flow and few riffles

But it finds hidden caves and sinkholes

It disappears and resurfaces, it touches bedrock

carrying many truths into the light.

It is small but courageous; fair and honest

And its existence carries Freedom on its shoulders.

For in this day, we come to appreciate

Our rights to read, write, wear and recite

Without fear or falter, the words we choose,

A song or a Howl¹, the Hill we Climb²,

Timely and timeless, the Current moves

Both man and mountain.

Let  us celebrate our storytellers

Our “works of wit and schemes of art”³

And wave our banner in the light

This day is yours and also ours

A privilege and a responsibility

A pillar of promise and a joy to share.

    © Julie Little 2025

References:

1. Howl, a poem by Allen Ginsberg, 1955. Ginsberg was of the Beat poet era, a movement that rebelled against conventional American values. This poem was at first banned as obscene, then ruled “not obscene” in 1957. It gradually came to be regarded as a great work. It speaks for the underrepresented outcasts in American society and calls out an oppressively conformist and materialistic culture.

2. The Hill We Climb a poem by Amanda Gorman, recited at the inauguration of Joe Biden in 2021, a hopeful poem. Gorman says “we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.”

3. From a poem called “On the Freedom of the Press” by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). Franklin said, “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government. When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved and tyranny is erected on its ruins.”