Greater than the kingdoms of the world
Is this forest where I spent my days
Weather in snow or on summerlit trail
With woodpecker trees and greeting pine branches

In the presence of wildlife and solitude
My childhood hid within this realm
On ancestral grounds of ancient valleys
With brown bear tracks and muddy lakes

I fished for pike and loved the breeze
Blown through the nostrils of creek and bark
And mountain walls with old mine holes
Filled with rain and mallard ducklings

The squirrel and the beaver damn
I stand frozen like an old birch tree
And observe the lonely lumberjack beast
Gnawing lumber in the dusk of midsummer

Greater than the world it is
This landscape where you could get lost
A hundred years and never find
Your way out of eternity