I started life high in the mountains
The air was so fresh and so clear
I sang as I danced over boulders
My babbling voice you could hear
The skylarks were my companions
The hares ran close by my banks
Any mess left behind by these creatures
Was cleansed by the rain’s serried ranks
I am the fairest of rivers
My waters are fresh and pristine
I travel a beautiful journey
My banks they are mossy and green
But I am affected by where I have been
Oh please won’t you please keep me clean
Now I must continue my journey
I slow myself down on the plain
Curiously I meander about
Still I am kept clean by the rain
Soon that is a double edged sword
Something nasty is washed from the fields
My water is stifled my fish cannot breathe
Farmers say it increases their yields
I am the fairest of rivers
My waters are fresh and pristine
I travel a beautiful journey
My banks they are mossy and green
But I am affected by where I have been
Oh please won’t you please keep me clean.
Then there’s the burgeoning towns
What will I do when I need to flood
The snow still melts as it always did
But flood plains have gone for good.
Then the waste they put into my water
I think I will die of the shame
The stench you will smell as I pass
I know it is humans to blame.
I am the fairest of rivers
My waters were fresh and pristine
I travel a beautiful journey
My bank were mossy and green
But I am affected by where I have been
Oh please won’t you please keep me clean
I move to the end my journey
I know that I must reach the sea
But with all the shit that I carry
What will she think of me
I should arrive full of freshness
My waters sparkling and bright
But I am taking her poison
And I know that can not be right.
I was the fairest of rivers
My water was fresh and pristine
I travelled a difficult journey
My banks once were mossy and green
But I was affected by where I had been
Oh why could you not keep me clean?
4 comments:
Brilliant Ann - and phew! You’ve mastered the posting bit. A lovely first person narrative too, great to read it once again.
I love this poem Anne and I know you will find a beautiful tune to accompany it. I can visualise the river’s path every bit of its journey
It may not be quite as I read it at the meeting as I managed to lose it when I tried to copy it so I had to rewrite it!!
The use of the first person is so effective. Like Jennie, I think the melody will come to you...it so reads like a song, the chorus bringing tbe message home. And very well done for posting 😮😊
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