Long, rocky cliffs o'erlook the sea that lies before my eyes And narrow, ragged pathways that often are disguised As merest dainty stepping stones like tiny fairy trails Are found in small abandon among the sharded shale Here and there I find a nest, unused, it shows neglect For now is not the season when the mating birds collect In sheltered, hidden vantages I see the purple heath And even more infrequently I find a tarnished leaf Of pitcher plants, somehow, someway, transported to this place And dropped to little basins upon the mountain face When I finally reach the paramount and look from where I came I can see what must have been the thought that have this land its name The miles and miles I look upon are pleasure to the eyes And the rugged, rolling hills I see to me are paradise The forests, vast and purple-green, stretch on and on and on Until at last they fade away like a distant waning song Then, turning toward the sea once more I cast my sight far out As I wonder if I'm first of all to climb this lofty mount Away off in the distance a whale has come to breach Then another, and another, in the cold Atlantic reach A tiny boat away out there sends shivers down through me And I remember lessons learned when at my mother's knee Among the things she taught me was to say my prayers through all And now I think, "Oh God, your sea so big holds up my boat so small" Turning once again I see far off towards the North The breath of icy winds that blow down off the Arctic hoar And on that wind there often comes the death of many men Whose lives depend upon the feast that is in nature's sullen lend The cod, the seal, the lobster too, as well as hauling pots All over danger, close at hand, that often is their lot But now the most that's on my mind, as I stand here so enthralled Is the grandness of this Newfoundland and its beauty overall Davey Lee George Chesapeake, Virginia   Submitted By: NULL