Thank you to Susy Kaat for permission to share her father's poem with Harbor Web readers. It was written in 1989, just a few weeks before his death.
And the glittering lights so gay
The surging throngs, the juke box songs
And the lure of the cabaret?
Give me a shack off the beaten track
With the lush green bush around
A boat and a lake and the right to stake
And a tract of virgin ground.
Let me roam at will o'er dale and hill
Or skirt the rocky shore,
And search for the signs of future mines.
I ask for nothing more.
Each breaking dawn I'll gaze upon
The sun in russet dressed
Each eventide I'll watch him ride
Adown the golden west.
The birds and the bees and the wind in the trees
Their matins sweet will blend,
And the loon's lone cries will close my eyes
In sleep at the long days end.
I'll step abroad on sphagnum sod
Through festooned canopies
And breath so deep the perfume sweet
From wildflowers and the trees.
Ah, life is so good to him who would
Foresake the city air
And choose to dwell within the speel
Of natures garden fair.
So give me a shack off the beaten track
Near where the rainbow ends.
Where worries cease and all is peace
And God and me are friends.
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