H

Frank Wight

THE NATIONAL PARK

A gift to the people

Forever and ever
An environmentalist's dream

Who believe they are clever
And others just like them

Who don't understand
About old mother nature

And how things are planned...

Hundred thousand acres

Of pure virgin lands
Clothed and bedecked

With old decadent stands
Diseased and insect-ridden

Snags by the score
A thousand years

Of debris on that forest floor...

God up above

Who believes in new life
He rescues the dying

The old from the strife
Decided by the soil

The old trees so forlorn
This land is dying

It must be reborn...

A bolt from the heavens

With unerring aim
Struck an old cedar

To rend and to maim
Smoke drifting slowly

Hid in the mists from the sea
Secure in remoteness

From you and from me
Flames snaked out

Ravenous with hunger
The roar of the fire

Infernal of thunder
The thin-barked hemlock

The first to succumb
Were joined by others

In that fiery tomb
The firestorm spiralled

With splendor, such haste
The fleetest of mammals

Were grimly outraced...

Against the powers of nature

Man is too frail
All efforts to suppress it

Were doomed to fail
With God it started

And with God it must end
The holocaust

The terror

With time he will mend
Over the ocean

With moisture-laden air
The front moved ever closer

And soon it was there...

Nature's mighty forces

In deadly contest
Fire and water,

Each fought to outbest
Ten days and nights

The battle was violent
Smoke turned to steam

And the fire was silent...

Unemployment is with us

In a province near broke
Thousands of jobs

Are lost in the smoke
Minority groups

With outlandish names
Pressure our leaders

For parks, and land claims...

The silent majority

So gullible, so lax
Will sign any petition

Without knowing the facts
Lawyers and judges

Favour the emotional few
"Who pays the costs"

The rest of us do

This renewable resource

Like fish and the grain
Produce wealth forever

Again and again
If managed wisely

By people who care
Our survival

The FOREST

Will always be there