Paean

Down below surrounding valley walls,

By river’s roar and tide’s eternal flow,

A multitude assembles as they sing

A hymn of praise to freedom long awaited.

And as they march through lands where generations

Lived out their days in cries of darkened anguish,

The memories of that long oppression vanish

Amid the wash of colour bursting forth.

And I, within the woodland high above,

Bear all my tortured darkness set aloft,

Made all more cruel as the celebrations

Ring on in echoes through the river valley.

5/8/18