When Willows Weep Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

A river always likes to flow
downhill - from up to down -
its water somehow seems to know
to find the nearest town.

The fishes aren't quite so smart,
they often swim uphill,
but this can be quite slow and hard,
though using tail and gill
makes up for lack of proper thinking
and also keeps the fish from sinking.

Could you explain to me why it's so,
that rivers don't stay home?
Who did invent the constant flow
that makes the river roam?

It's restlessness, you say my friend,
that it's like smoke that billows.
And why do all the rivers tend
to have their weeping willows?

Because, my dear, the willows weep
their tears straight into streams.
They do have promises to keep
it isn't what it seems.

I think that happy rivers must
have tears to keep from gloating.
They also tend to settle dust,
stirred up from too much boating.

So, rivers flow with fishes in it,
and happy waves are normal.
But weeping willows, every minute
shed tears to keep things formal.

When weeping willows finally die
and no more tears come down,
the rivers rise from low to high
and flooding comes to town.

So each things has its usefulness.
Its role, which was designed
by higher powers who see this
as bag balm for the mind.

And man has never learned to stay
away from interfering
with Nature's Laws and Nature's Ways,
that's why the disappearing
of trees and rivers, fish and man
is something that we should,
prevent by doing what we can:
And nothing would be good.