My Teacher Shenandoah

Discussion in 'Creative Corner' started by ibshambat, May 29, 2020.

  1. ibshambat

    ibshambat Banned

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    Speak to me, Shenandoah!
    You're old, and I am young.
    In valley down below
    And all your hills among,

    Dinosaurs have once roamed,
    With open, hungry eyes;
    Mammoths made you their home
    Amid the sheets of ice -

    Taller than Mount St. Helen
    You once stood on the earth;
    Reaching and touching heaven -
    Through all the death and birth

    You towered, proud and mighty,
    Seeing and knowing all,
    Parted and yet united -
    Each mountain and the whole -

    Seeing trees grow and wither,
    Animals live and die,
    Thunder, tornado, blizzard -
    Elements you defy,

    But stand, evincing shadow
    In the sun's morning rays
    Over the forests, meadows,
    And in the time and space.

    You stood here when the red man
    Hunted and roamed the lands,
    When the wise, painted shaman
    At bonfire, in a trance,

    Healed ailments and diseases,
    Arrows and spears dislodged
    And contacted deceased ones
    And spirits in sweat lodge,

    And when the white man landed
    And drove the red man hence,
    You stood in pain and sadness
    But let the life advance.

    The ages have eroded you -
    The water and the wind;
    The workers have exploded you
    Railways and roads to build -

    You are worn out, tired,
    Shadow of what you were -
    In forests you're attired
    Now, as you were before

    In ice caps. Appalachia!
    You've seen and known it all -
    The vagaries of nature,
    Tsunamis in man's soul -

    Both ignorance and wisdom,
    Both viciousness and bliss,
    The muteness of deceased ones,
    The symphony that lives

    In people and in nature
    In oceans and the skies:
    In beauty and in danger
    Life grows and multiplies -

    For millions of years
    You stood and saw and heard
    And caught life unawares
    Like, in a trap, a bird

    And wrung from its beaked mouth
    The universal song:
    You are the life's storehouse!
    The planet's skeleton!

    All lived, died, decomposed
    And left its dust in you -
    There resting in repose
    Under the sky of blue -

    And as you see and know
    The world, both old and new,
    My teacher - Shenandoah -
    Give me your wisdom too!
     
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