| America, Why I Love Her | 
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| You ask me why I love her? Give me time and I'll explain;
Have you seen a Kansas sunset, or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?
Have you seen the cold fog drift over San Francisco Bay?
Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines,
Or the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachian mines?
Does the call of the Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar,
Do you look with awe and wonder at her Massachusetts shore
where men who braved a hard new world first stepped on Plymouth's rock?
Do you think of them when you stroll along New York city dock?
Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies, way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea?
Do you bow your head at Gettysburg at our struggle to be free?
Have you seen the mighty Tetons? Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winter's day
her waters raged along the shore in thunderous display?
Does the word 'Aloha' make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief when you see the surf come roaring in at Waiamea reef?
From Alaska's cold to the everglades, from the Rio Grande to Maine,
My heart cries out, my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her? I've a million reasons why --
My beautiful America, beneath God's wide, wide sky. | By John Mitchum
Copyright 1971
Listed 11/28/2006 |
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