Taken to the River

Taken to the River

I could not take you to the river

That snake of flow where we once trod,

I could not force upon your ears,

All the music that I had heard.

I had gone on in that river,

With my sisters and my friends,

When a youth, I, like when I knew you later,

Years before you came to earth.

I was small and parents-guided,

They took me camping in the West.

We set assail on rubber raft plodding,

In Wyoming as a test. 

I could not take you down that spill way,

Past the ospreys and the nests

I could not be the same father to you,

As you, a child, would not rest.

My parents yes, they went to parks,

the same one where I felt the steam,

Of geysers ancient, often bubbling,

the waters forming up in streams

I loved the heat of water flowing

Across my skin and in my dreams

I could not force upon you,

The music that in my heart would beat.

 Yellowstone. Tetons. Mountain streams...

We went to that same park, when,

You were youthful a bit like me.

We saw the mountains from a distance,

Another place we shall not see.

I was taken there, by mine,

My parents who took their summer time,

A camper trailer bedded vehicle,

A trip where I could climb up high

We went as family across the midlands,

Of our nation warm and dry.

I took the ways that I could, 

with time and money best afforded,

We hoped to take you to our rivers

Where life and limb were first recorded.

I was able to feel the surges,

Of the rafting and the wake,

A big mountain river in Wyoming,

to Idaho flows the mighty Snake.

But: I could not take you to that river,

A time and place that I have lost,

Time is nigh, there is still daylight,

For a chance to flow that way.

I might take you and yours some time,

Down the river of my heart,

I could take you on a voyage,

Where my feelings I would impart.

Be like them, my parents, like me.

You don't have to love the same.

Be like them and me and different,

But be like what was meant for we.

For us.

You are with me on that river,

though you might not see the same

Visages of birds and creatures,

Which I came to know, not game.

All Creatures of our God and King,

The books my mother used to read,

All Creatures of Him living,

The hymns of majesty we sing.

I cannot force upon you, 

All the yearnings of my heart.

I cannot take you on that river,

Where my feelings have special part.

I might take you to that river,

the mighty Snake, the Tetons, too.

I will remember you and Wyoming,

I will not forget that is who

Went down that river way back when,

 Is me and you and my parents, friends.

We have taken that great river, from the mountains

Way up high, in teeming heights.

We have flowed down to the pastures,

Where the eagles sore and fly.

The high ones become low while the humble grow tall,

The summer merges into the august and the Fall.

Winter comes, the river freezes,

On the surface, cracks and kreegs,

Water moves, beneath the hardness,

The river will not be completely stopped.

I will take you to that river,

go with me and we will shop

Purchase things of greater value

Time and sunlight and the moon

We will alight upon the waters

In the basking and the swoon

Of memories and time lost, time gone

Time to move and a place to come home.

And yet, I have not forced upon you,

All the music I have known.

I cannot bequeath upon you,

All the beauty I have been shown.

But, I will take you to that river,

I will live to do that thing,

I will love you on forever,

Through this winter into spring.