Mountain Song

Rocky Mountain National Park

Paint your song against the wind
Let it fly like drifting snow
Gently swirling through the skies
Leaving its trace on lands below 

Rising tall against the landscape
Towering through eternity
What we build should be majestic
In its own simplicity

We may be here but a moment
We may not think we leave a mark
But we touch the lives around us
And our kindness is a spark

We must try to stand like mountains
Built up slowly over time
Solidly through wind and weather
Yielding beauty through the climb

Lasting through the generations
Pushing upward to the sun
Knowing that the touch we leave here
Will be felt for years to come

Be the beauty all around you
Be the spark that makes you gasp
Be the thing that makes you wonder
How such beauty from the past

Can endure and stand resilient
Through the wind and through the rain
Deeply touching now in this age
Calming us through joy and pain

Nature is not to be conquered
Stripped away for transient gain
It stands solid here to teach us
That what inspires us must remain

The future comes on anyway
We cannot stop it nor should want to
We must meet it ever thankful
To have this legacy to turn to

Our task is to pass to others 
What from the past should be preserved
The things that free our souls to breathe
And share the beauty here conserved

What has value cannot be bought,
Bartered, hoarded, outright owned 
Truth, beauty, kindness, compassion 
Things to be shared, seeds to be sown

Adding to what’s here bequeathed us
Knowing what to keep or change
But believing things we pass on
That inspire us should remain

While we tread upon this earth
Our mark accumulating on the land
Let our steps be gently reverent
Recognizing what’s at hand

One day we will pass from this life
Others then will take our place
Let us teach them gratitude
For the beauty of this space

Let them learn well how to shepherd
What’s been given from the past
To the future not to plunder
But to nurture so it lasts

So that all who see it one day
Glistening against the sky
Marvel at what stands before them
Through the eons marking time