David W. Watts
To North America’s eastern shore two rivers run, they say:
One the door to Canada, one to the U-S-A
From Ontario’s York, an inland port, to New York on the sea
You can follow the Gulf around Gaspé or take the ER-I-IE …
The Hudson and the Saint Lawrence, two countries side by side
Doors to a single continent, ports on a common tide
The waterways we live along are complementary streams
That shaped our lands and peoples, share our hopes and dreams.
In ancient times a single river emptied to the south
Draining the interior through the Mississippi’s mouth
Earth moved within her mantle: mitosis intervened
Cut a northeast passage to join the Ottawa’s stream.
Competing traders ran their wares through (these) rival ports of call:
New Amsterdam and Albany, Québec and Montreal
The seaboard of New England, the inlet of New France:
Empires built on speculation, hopes and fears and chance …
Dreams passed with generations, borders were redrawn
New England independent when fear of France had gone
Laurentia stayed loyal, became a haven for
English from the south who fled, homeless from the war.
An unseen baker rolled out the continental dough
In two great lumps and baked one first to see how it would grow:
Held the other in reserve for about a hundred years
To learn from the first’s experience, hopes and dreams and tears …
Beyond the Rockies two great rivers run a parallel course
One ends below the border, the other to the north:
One’s been harnessed many times, the other still runs free
And shows a way for those who need a passage to the sea:
The Columbia and Fraser, two pathways to the tide
Doors to a single continent on the Pacific side:
The great northwestern waterways are contrapuntal streams
That shaped our lands and peoples, share our hopes and dreams.
Above the Arctic Circle, below the midnight sun
Two northern rivers to the Bering and the Beaufort run
One rises in the Yukon, then through Alaska bends
The other’s straight and seemed a disappointment at its end.
The Yukon and Mackenzie, two pathways side by side
Passing through the Arctic, where the ocean has no tide:
All rivers and their waterways are tributary streams
That shape Earth’s lands and peoples, sharing hopes and dreams.