I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
Flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
His soul has flown the same path as these rivers and through these paths he has acquired knowledge of history, of himself and has grown deep, maybe becoming part of the river himself
The Negro Speaks of Rivers