La Gaspésie
- 05/11/02Coasts that escape the embrace
Of pine carpeted mountains
Become no more than
Barren ragged lines of red rock
As they collide with the grey waves
That swirl and foam and spray
And slowly sculpt them;
Their endurance a testament to time.
Once this was wild ground,
Untamed, it rose from the sea to the mountains,
Whose rounded peaks spoke to the wind,
and whose eyes could been seen
glowing coral and amber
as their pinnacles embraced the setting sun.
Now, this savage land has been conquered
And its once endless forests have been stripped
And lumbered into dwindling nothingness.
Arms of rivers crisscross
Like twisting snakes as they rush down
From the mountains to taste
The salt of the ocean;
Their churning waters
Green, deep and cold.
Yet those of us who live here still
Can climb breathlessly to the highest heights within our reach
And survey churning ocean
Holding for one precious moment
The unnamed freedom
That the land will not deny us.