My Teacher Shenandoah

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!