i contemplate the you i've dreamed
flowing as a river's stream
now chanting you with my whole being,
conceiving a most pleasant frame
why is it you enthrall me so
to see you on a pedestal?

if i should sing your face so fair
your sienna eyes, your sylvan hair
blue mountain range's misty rise
the plains, the hills, your turquoise skies
it'd be more than i could bear
to fully sing your vast grandeur
before these lights of mine go dim
want to walk the mountain rim
and on the canyon wide and grand
to shout my song, to take a stand

this land i live, of you, i sing
in broken rhyme, prance and sing
look out upon your myriad trees
chanting of all those yearly rings
the quaking aspen and jarupa oak
among the oldest things on earth

sing of grizzly bears, of caribou
the flying squirrels, and masked raccoon
the crafty fox, the coyote's howl
in the night, your wise hoot owl
i sing the soil, earth worms, your fields
singing out of red orchard yields
fertile and rich with faithful clime
makes all rejoice at harvest time

your every part commands my song
my compassion deeply drawn
to fall in love again, and swoon
from night and dawn
and sun-drenched noon
sing great lakes and river-ways
both ocean coasts and scenic bays

i sing your people to honor those
the originals who carried bows
their love for you & mother earth
from your soil, they had their birth
ancient spirits who knew the trees
when red woods were just saplings

i sing the song of cataclysmic change
of those who came to you as strange
aliens who were searching for
the promised land, but grasping more
of crazy horse, his battles fought
his unfinished horn now embossed

i sing the sorrow of your land
when blood was on a brother's hand
and the lines of your fair green face
were subject to war's gray disgrace

i sing the wars, the hate, the lies
that blinded everybody's eyes
the struggle for this glorious land
spanning years from sand to sand

i sing of slavery, i sing of those
shanghaied to you from african shores
i sing the inhumanity they endured
worse than what's been ever heard
i sing the merit of their cause
their contribution giving pause

i sing of your diverse people now
who stand for all, and take a vow
to protect what's yours, home and abroad
to be one nation under god

i sing america--her theme
her vision i sing with my whole being
you, freeing land, enthrall me so
to put you on a pedestal.









2.7 9/10
© Brian Peter Hodgkinson