I’m attaching the text of an ode I adapted/modified for the Hudson from an ‘Ode to an Irish river’. I have hopes the ode could be disseminated as part of Nyacks contribution to the planned 2009 Hudson-Champlain celebration. Copyright is under application. Feedback would be welcomed.
‘€˜ I am the River ‘
I am the River. I have carved these soft valleys
from rocks and mountains. As deep sheets of ice
grew all around me, I slowed. As the land warmed
up again, I felt the life within me and around me
return. I watched as the first hunters appeared on my
banks. I watched as the first farmers cut clearings in
the ancient woods that covered the land.
For thousands of years men have fished and
farmed, lived and loved along my banks; yet great
tragedies have unfolded before me. More than
once the rain has washed blood from the land.
Stories of passion, bravery, and endurance
emanate from my valleys thru the ebb and flow of
time. Pass graveyards, farmlands, wooded trails and
glacial boulders. Follow my banks past fossilized
rocks and grassy winding roads and hear stories
of magic and myth. I have borne witness to good
times and bad, famine and plenty, war and peace.
My shores have embraced it all throughout the ages,
casting enduring impressions that flow timelessly
thru the ancient valleys I have wrought.
Tear of the Clouds to the waiting sea
I am the River’€¦ follow me.
