Eric Archer Canoeing in the winter in a river in the Hudson Valley

A Love Letter to Our Hudson Valley Rivers by Eric Archer

By inside + out | February 3, 2025

This month we are exploring the theme of Love Letters in the Hudson Valley. Eric Archer Dahlberg and several local changemakers and visionaries were invited to express their ode to love in original ways, to honor any person, being, or place in the region.

You place gentle words in my mouth.
A quenching song I don’t know, but that knows me.
Here my longing will be found flushing a mating pair of egrets from cloistered reeds, the seed of our need.
Water astonished and quaking and each feathered one turning upward, over fear, only wanting to know each other more deeply.
Saying yes, at the same time.
Several degrees of incarnation.
To be with you this way is to out-wait a wild thing, the day the Sycamore seeds, and now I am this breaking bud to leaf.
But your body remains, the song no poet yet has chanted.
So I take dictation, lips to your back, your neck, ears, hair.
You are the only thing I will dare towards.
Yet which direction shall I pray when every direction is to you?
My surrender is your surrounding, the infinite ephemeral.
I am the sudden swelling of locust blossoms, the blood-knowing of a migrating bird, our Winter revealing Summer’s concealing, to feed.
We are the earth receiving a seed.
The warmest summer rain, eager to be on its way.
Our meeting can have no wrong season, feeding bloodroot for milkweed,
And so we come here to make time.
An inside, of you.
Mysteries intact.
An entire forest of birch blushing beneath our words, your curves, the signature of the sun.
And yet every story of you is insufficient, every boundary a trap — there, Kingfishers cross, green heron, red fox, painted turtle and jumping eagle dreaming.
Desire our game, survival the rhythm of the name, remembering;
But who am I to you?
The question that keeps me within reach.
Flank of deer, flank of cedar, tongue kiss of a killing frost.
Thighs to the Sun, Freckles in place, Taste of your gaze;
Heaven is this place we lay, within our arms long before each is washed away
I tremble and shake to remember this ache
within you.
Move, like you need to.
Watery whispers of a lover in circling hawk, white pine bough
Vultures mating, death in reproduction even now, beckoning
Where I dare to stand between time and eternity if only to glimpse your heart
It’s beating eternity, for a little while.
Your creek speaks me in a silent sinewed praying.
Saying, you are what I say when I have nothing to say, everything to say.
You are the only temple I can serve in, make my body the offering,
My lips your names,
Where this too is the revealing of your face.
For at the end of your final river, where the mouth is the tail, all names fell away.
A height as depth, unfound, your embrace invisible, but sound.
Love has no why, only now.
How will you teach me to allow?

With love,

Eric Archer Dahlberg

ABOUT ERIC ARCHER CONDEVEAUX DAHLBERG

Eric Archer Condevaux Dahlberg is an avid canoeist and a multi-instrumentalist, artist, poet, and teacher. His work blends the transcendent and the tactile, reflecting his deep connection to nature and spirituality. Through music, art, poetry, and community-building, Eric creates experiences for reflection, exploration, and connection. Drawing inspiration from both traditional and contemporary sounds—ranging from classical Indian and folk to ambient and mantra music—he crafts unique and evocative expressions that invite inner discovery. As a student of the tabla and bansuri flute, Eric collaborates with artists like Prema Mayi and Biff Mithoefer, merging music with yoga and meditation. His visual art, which includes wood-carved sculptures and wall paintings, channels the fluidity of natural patterns. Additionally, his ecstatic spoken word poetry guides listeners through journeys of self-inquiry and collective insight. With a strong commitment to education and mindfulness, Eric shares his passions through teaching, storytelling, and collaborative experiences that nurture presence and foster community. He is also the Creative Director of Hudson Valley InterArts in Patterson, NY. Learn more about that vibrant hub of creativity, healing arts and community in our Exclusive Interview HERE.