Once there was a sunset on the big bay,
Glorious and full of splendour,
Deep orange red with tinted clouds
Sinking sunset beneath horizon waters and spruce clad hills.
Beyond the “Isle of Innismara”
With crimson reflected waters of the bay, calm and quiet,
Promising a beautiful new tomorrow

Once there was a river
Rushing ebbs and steadies, o’er rocky crags and weed festooned logs,
Rushing wildly magnificent, white water challenger of the brave adventurer,
Past haunts of salmon, smugglers’ caves and island of buried treasure,
Gyrating in whirlpools beneath the rocks of “Pirate’s Eye.”

Once there was a lake
Sheltered by verdant slopes of sylvan beauty,
Skirted by soft white sands.
Island stubbed haven of youth’s exploits,
Thirst quenching haunt of moose and deer
With sandy campsite beaches, swimming, and canoeing.

Once there was a mountain, higher then Everest,
Snow capped even in summer,
Sheer rock faced haunt of gull and puffin,
Rising from shoreline to embrace the clouds,
With summer trails and winter ski safaris.

Once there was a boy
Who lived and laughed and loved the beauty of his playground kingdom.
Alpine mountaineer, explorer of islands, trout fisherman, lake swimmer

All these things he was and more. This was his heritage.
But then the boy grew up and went away.
He left the bay, the river, lake and mountain
To seek new places, new adventures.
A big world waited for him out there beyond the sunset of the bay.

He travelled far and wide
To teeming cities reaching to the skies,
Pavement bound mazes of wonder,
Super ribbon highways, out into the sunset of the West
With great new horizons, limitless,
From place to place he fled
But never rested,
For always, in pursuit,
The “Hound of Heaven” that is home.

The years went by
And still he sought new places and new friends.
Arctic polar icecaps, Latin lands,
Oriental rice paddies with sentinel volcanoes belching smoke and flames
To him became familiar.

Friends came and went
The rolling stone rolled on.
He searched for happiness year by lonely year.
But still the call: "Come Home"
Come back and see the sunset on the bay
Come listen to the silence of the mountain.
“Nostalgia for Newfoundland (Terra Nova)”

Notes:
The Big Bay: Bay of Islands, West Coast of Newfoundland, was originally explored by Captain James Cook in 1767. He was a Yorkshire man, once of the famous explorers, navigators, adventurers of all time.
The river: The Humber River
The lake: Deer Lake
The mountain: Mount Moriah
The bay: Bay of Islands
The boy: Charlie O’Connell
Boyhood home: Curling, Bay of Islands, Newfoundland (now part of the City of Corner Brook).
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