it is writ on my heart
the sacrifices
we’ve made for her
the blessings
received for defending her

1.
sailing into the unknown
for a chance at freedom
landing in her arms -
her lush starkness, both
frightening and alluring -
to feel it and know it

2.
surviving the sacrifices of the
first year
as strangers in a strange land
gratitude for blessings
from the wilderness
which was full of woods,
huntable, edible creatures, and
plants that heal

3.
her soaring beauty and roughness
the generous giving of her indigenous peoples
the challenges to survival and
the support of survival,
both given freely, balanced in wildness
and by wildness

4.
the feeling of belonging growing daily
nurtured in courageous living
the feeling of fulfillment bursting
like fireworks across many lives
a land developed by and for originality
a land that develops its peoples in physical
strengths and heartfelt works

5.
the gathering of genius that made victory
inevitable when defending was needed
a deeper understanding created by unrelenting
challenges to survival from all angles
a grinding unstoppable to the
pioneer spirit bred in the bone, to the bone,
in the marrow of bone


c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater