“Maine”

I’ve been hunkered down
In the great north woods
And here’s what I will say

It’s harsh, it’s cruel
Beautiful and good
A uniquely different way


It’s the famous rocky coast
With foaming crashing waves
A quiet walk along the beach
In amber autumn days

It’s ice and snow and sitting
Waiting out the storm
It’s stocking up the woodpile
To keep the fire warm

It’s the sun and shadows softly
Dancing through the trees
Voices from the distant past
Whispering in the breeze

It’s ghostly souls from yesteryear
Walking well-worn paths
Generations long removed
When the journey was the map

Maps of struggle, maps of time
Of where a heart once stood
Maps of life’s rambling rhyme
Of what hard work made good

It’s family, friends and loved ones
And what’s been left behind
Hope chests from the “great north woods”
For young ones left to find

And find they will as time goes by
And life is handed down
From hidden, hardened, weathered lives
In shadowed pine tree towns

It’s one more time the wheel goes ‘round
And fills another mold
Then sets it down out in the snow
To winter through the cold

This is part of what I’ve seen
Gazing at the stars
In the silent, distant, northern nights
In the miles I’ve gone so far



I’ve been hunkered down
In the great north woods
And here’s what I will say

It’s harsh, it’s cruel
Beautiful and good
A uniquely different way