"gumee" poems
from The Song of Hiawatha
By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him through the sunshine,
Westward toward the neighboring forest
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo,
Passed the bees, the honey-makers,
Burning, singing in the sunshine.
Bright above him shown the heavens,
Level spread the lake before him;
From its ***** leaped the sturgeon,
Aparkling, flashing in the sunshine;
On its margin the great forest
Stood reflected in the water,
Every tree-top had its shadow,
Motionless beneath the water.
From the brow of Hiawatha
Gone was every trace of sorrow,
As the fog from off the water,
And the mist from off the meadow.
With a smile of joy and triumph,
With a look of exultation,
As of one who in a vision
Sees what is to be, but is not,
Stood and waited Hiawatha.
5.2k
I see the Superior Gitche Gumee.
The clouds slowly descend after a lazy drizzle fills the air with grey.
From atop this hill I look down,
Upon the steely blue-grey waters
Churning with eagerness to throw themselves upon the rocks of the shore.
As my eyes trace the horizon covered by a soft cloud curtain,
A soft smile sneaks up on me as I realize
I can't tell where the skies meet those waters
As they drop off the edge of the earth
Into nothingness.
The determined flowers stretching up from the bushes press upon me
A scent unfamiliar,
And as I walk away, I look back to see one lone rock
Staring back at me from among the waves.
Across the highway, where the drivers speed past
(As they presumably do every day),
I view the mist-covered forests pouring over the hillside
Like some great verdant blanket.
A pair of older men stand along the rocky shoreline below,
Swapping stories and secrets
As they skip stones.
Jul 1, 2011
Jul 1, 2011 at 10:04 PM UTC
Overlooking the bow of the ship
With nary a thing in sight but the lake they call Gitche Gumee
The waves crashing against the hull with a thunderous roar
Winds howling like the sound of a jet engine taking off
Nothing I have not seen before all these years at sea
My thoughts turn to home
A wife, a son, friends and family
Celebrating yet another birthday without me
Below I can hear the men at dinner equally jubilant
Soon another lake crossing will be met with pay checks
How did I get here all alone at the helm
Responsible for so many heading into yet another storm
Riding in and out like tides on the ocean of life
Highs and lows each day rippling through the hours of a journey
The aroma of my coffee brings me back to the present
Radar indicates others are around me but what are they up to
Racing to cover like we are or hunkered down already
In a safe cove readying for bed, dreams about to be launched
Like this ship when she was shiny and new and held out great hopes
For both crew and owners
Now my fears mount as does the heaving of the ship
Listing from side to side the fateful sounding of the alarm
Despite their best effort the engines are fighting a losing battle
For the first time my thoughts turn to failure
What if she actually went down to the ragged sea bed below
Sinking to the bottom like a stone tossed into a pond
My men scurry to ready the life rafts
We all know this will be in vain the seas too rough to set them adrift
Through their silence they too communicate our doom
It is now only a matter of time
And so we wait.
Andreas Simic©
Feb 18, 2018
Feb 18, 2018 at 7:45 AM UTC