Songs

Follow the descants of your dreams
To the land of sparkling singing streams
Whose harmony—since time began—
Plays the mystic music of Michigan.

And nowhere else is the sound as sweet
As where the Great Lakes waters meet,
For the Upper Peninsula’s loving embrace
Beckons to all with its beauty and grace.

Near lustrous lakes—cool, crystal clear,
You’ll find the songs you long to hear.
Rising up from wild willowy shores
Echoing through ferned forest doors.

Frogs gently croak. A bumblebee hums.
On a weatherworn stump a ruffed grouse drums.
From silvery stones in a green mossy thicket
Flows the flirtatious fugue of a coquettish cricket.

Chickadees in duet with white pines
Warble and whisper within woodland shrines.
Their lilting refrains give thanks and give praise
As they flit amidst branches in blithe polonaise.

Where pond lilies grow in pink profusion
And nature’s nests are masked from intrusion,
There chants the soulful lyrical loon
Its lullaby—a haunting tune.

A choir of coyotes skims the sky
With a wistful wailing hymn-like cry.
Their stunning psalm anoints the air
Rendering a concert rare.

Beneath the silent summer moon
The wolf imparts its woeful tune,
A song as ancient as the night
Vanishing by dawn’s first light.

By Coralie Cederna Johnson