Gregory J. Hobbs Jr., former Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, water law expert, and poet, died in Denver on November 30, 2021.
In addition to living in San Antonio when young, Justice Hobbs spoke many times to audiences in Texas about water policy. In 2020, Texas+Water Editor in Chief Dr. Todd Votteler asked Justice Hobbs to provide an unpublished poem on water for Poetry+Water. Here is the poem provided by Justice Hobbs.
In the Rhythm You’re Returning To!
Pack your pack, your saddle bags,
your camera, craft, your fishing pole,
your sleeping bag, your pocket knife,
flashlight, poncho, wooly cap
Whichever map will get you back!
To canyon, forest, peak, and stream,
quiet eye of deep-down things,
juice and joy of streaming light
within, along, above, below
What’s very good that needs you not!
Paws and claws, gills and wings,
trunk and branch, flower stems,
mother dew and father cool,
beauty’s changing discipline
In the rhythm you’re returning to!
Ever fresh and ever new,
creation’s changing symmetries,
pour off tarns and pocket cirques,
travois tracks and medicine wheels
The smallest thing the hardest to do!
Leave them alone just let them be
a column of moonlight,
the rainbow’s curl,
wetland seeps.
-Greg Hobbs (1944 – 2021)