Editor’s Note: Rhythm runs in the family. The voice of three generations of American poet follow, with works by Phil Knight, his grandmother Mabel, and great-grandfather James.

The Endless Cycle
By Phil Knight
Huge rolling swells
Far from the shore
Rolling forever,
They’ll roll evermore.
A desert of water
Incredibly deep
Across which the winds
Unceasingly sweep.

Clouds overhead,
The sunlight is dim
A shaft pierces through
As though on a whim.
It warms the water,
Which rises as steam
Beginning the journey
To cloud and to stream.

Clouds build slowly,
Nourished by the sun
There will be a storm
Before day is done.
The storm gathers strength,
It blows toward the land,
And drops the first moisture
On forest and strand.

Lightning explodes
The thunder it roars
Furious rain
Descends on the moors.
Crossing the plain,
The Storm meets the hills.
Higher it rises
As down the rain spills.

Up in the mountains
The rain turns to snow
The thunder has ceased
But winds still blow.
Soon there’s no rain
Or snow left to drop
Vapors disperse
Wailing winds stop.

The storm is now over
The mountains are white.
The sun warms the air
With the day’s final light.
Many a river
Begins in the snows
Sun melts the ice
It trickles and flows

A rivulet forms
It quickens its pace
And joins with another
In oceanward race
Soon there’s a torrent
A splash and a roar
It leaps through the forest
Down falls by the score

Reaching the valley
It widens and flows
With lazy meanders
To the river it goes.
The volume increases
The river is full.
Smoothly it moves
With gravity’s pull.

A long, steady journey
It makes to the sea
Through canyon and marsh
Past city and lea.
The ocean at last!
It joins with the rest
And follows the tides
To east or to west

The river is truly perpetual motion
It flows forever
On down to the ocean
Completing the cycle
Of water and steam
Ocean and sunlight,
Snow, rain and stream.