NORTHERN HEART/TROPIC SKIES 

This tropic land is beauty's own
With tumbling mountains, boundless skies
Here colours riot, birds enchant
And prodigal summer never dies.

        (My country's moods take long to know
        Her mountains ,rivers, lakes and plains
        Give nothing easily for life
        And struggle yields but modest gains.)

Here palm trees sway a light ballet
And breezes whisper through the cane;
The  sea  itself but waltzes in
Then  lazily ebbs out again.

        (My country's sea snarls at her shores
        It bites and worries at the land.
        Her trees, deep-rooted, gnarled and tough
        With leafless boughs defiant stand.)

This island drugs with sounds and scents
Colours so rich the eye is lost
Here life is offered as a gift
And nature is a gracious host.

        (My country has its colours too ---
          Kaleidoscope of autumn leaves.
        And trees stark black against the snow,
        The sudden green which springtime weaves
        When all the naked branches show the miracle of life renewed.
        And brightly in the magic spring the sun  shines gold
         And life is good.

        My country can be grey and harsh
        We laugh, relieved , when springtime comes
        Glad to be free for short respite
        From knifing winds and winter nights
        And frozen skies and rationed sun.

My country's beautiful  to seek.
Rugged and harsh and stern and bleak.

And mine.

          

Alma