“For All” by Gary Snyder
Ah to be alive
on a
mid-September morn
fording a
stream
barefoot,
pants rolled up,
holding
boots, pack on,
sunshine,
ice in the shallows,
northern
rockies.
Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose
dripping
singing
inside
creek
music, heart music,
smell of
sun on gravel.
I pledge
allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle
Island,
and to
the beings who thereon dwell
one
ecosystem
in
diversity
under the
sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.