Love Song to Clayoquot Sound IV

 

Oh, untrammeled coastal beaches

of Clayoquot Sound, you sang

a siren song to me for years

before I journeyed here,

long before I ever saw

the perfection of your beauty.

Your ley lines drew me to you

as surely as a murrelet is drawn to its nest,

a migrant whale to its feeding ground.

Your call could not be ignored,

and so I came, out of the desert

and over the coastal mountains.

And then, such joy! Waves galloping

into shore like white-maned horses,

misty, fog-shrouded mornings, 

thousand-year-old cedar, raven, eagles,
wind-surfing the sky,
 herons picky-toe-ing their way

along the mudflats, seabirds

wheeling free over shining waters,

my heart exulting that I'd made

my dream come true.

Love for your wild beauty

will never stop singing inside me.

I carry that song of joy within,

a gleaming treasure, a song of love.

There are spirits here:
they called me to this power place
of the First People, who have walked here
before us for ten thousand years.
Spirits of land and sea and sky
whisper to me, in the forest,
along all your wild shores.
They sing to my soul: deep peace,
deep peace. They give me rest.
They tell me:
You are Home.

It comforts me to know
that one day I will be placed
in this beloved earth,
where tall trees lashed by winter storm
will sing over me.
It is good to know that
I will never have to leave,
that I will remain
forever in this beauty place
where my soul put down its roots
so deep they can
never be pulled out.

for earthweal, where we contemplate Spirits of Place. In 2000, UNESCO designated Clayoquot Sound a Biosphere Reserve.  But you would not believe how many old growth trees have been cut down since then.