This Land

This land lies green beneath the sun

And shows me work which I have done

To make it mine with foot and hand

As if no other held this land

Before I came.

But once there was a cabin here

A garden there, an orcard near

And someone sat with pipe in hand

And scanned his works and dreamed his plan

And loved his wife and raised his babe

Yet all he wrought and changes made

Were gone before I came.

Did he then see as I now do

With mystic eyes a magic view

Of one who walked this wooded strand

Drew close his love with copper hand

To watch their children hard at play?

Did he know others went this way

Before he came?

Wind, rain, and sun year after year

Have his all trace that they were here

And my works too will fade from view

Someone will come to start anew

When I am gone.

He'll trim this tree and move that stone

And plant his crops where ours were grown

He'll walk this path where once we walked

And speak of things of which we talked

And sit and view with mystic mind

The legacy we left behind

Before he came.

He'll hold his wife and children near

These flowers he'll smell. these birds he'll hear

This land won't show our human stains

But in its very stone remains

Our love, for once we came.

Hawk Watcher - Sha Peko Ouachita

©1983