O Hudson, My Hudson
O mighty Hudson
I’ve loved you from the start
Your headwaters at tiny Lake Tear of the Clouds
That time I camped in your presence
When it rained after I’d climbed all day
Taking the less traveled stream bed
To that ultimate peak, Tahawus.
That night when I was alone with mournful loons
After days of backpacking solo, trance-like
Keeping a fire going despite a gentle drizzle
Me, afraid in the sputtering campfire glow
Many bears had been spotted.
O mighty Adirondacks
Scaling your high peaks
Delving into your deep gorges
Gliding silent canoes
Never startling the deer
Listening to white throated sparrow and thrush.
Then taking wing down to the Dutch Fort Orange
Living in the houses of Ten Eyck, van Rensselaer, Ten Broeck
Living where the Hudson meets the Mohawk
Watching the crackling ice melt that day from the old Stockade.
Down to picturesque villages of
Saugerties, New Paltz, Phoenicia
Hiking the worn-down Catskills
Up into the sheer Gunks
And with noiseless footfalls
Down Slide Mountain
Echoes of soft moccasins
Treading lightly on steep trails
Alongside the east and west banks
Within sight of deep forests of game
River sturgeon thriving, respected
Speared only as needed
Its scutes primordial, sacred.
O mighty Hudson
Breathe in your light
Your glorious haze of morning
Your rich pastels of sunset
Europeans sailing their wooden ships
Overcome by your staggering beauty
With easel, song and pen they capture your essence.
To the great promontories and sweeping views
The citadel at West Point
The trap set by colonists to net British ships
Across the narrowest part of the river
Downriver, the battle of Yorktown
Let souls rest in peace in Sleepy Hollow.
O mighty Hudson
Where commerce quickens
Fishing boats, barges, steamers
En route to Albany
But first we fish in Fishkill
Light the way in Beacon
You’re a queen in Kingston
Drink wine in Rhinebeck
We boat in Croton
Quench our thirst in Cold Spring
Don boating hats in Haverstraw
Wide as a lake as we make our way downriver
Where the Palisades rise on the west bank.
And now to that once quaint village of Peter Stuyvesant
That small island of metamorphic rock
Stalwart in the deep Hudson Canyon
Where you endlessly deliver yourself to the abyss of the mother
There alongside you I ran in Riverside Park
Fragrance of cherry blossoms along the boat basin
Mingled with the familiar river musk
Rising to my window a dozen stories above you.
Follow you all the way downtown where tall masts
Fleets of every nation
Speak the language of commerce
Charthouse, counting house, courthouse
Print house, tenement house, playhouse
Firehouse, slaughterhouse, chophouse
Fish house, steakhouse, alehouse
Customs house, wheelhouse
Coming full circle
A worthy end to you
O my mighty Hudson
We raise our flags of liberty
And salute you.
