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The Ageless River

from The Pines of My Past by Gabriel Coia

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lyrics

She was born in the cold many ages ago
When the ground was frozen and covered with snow
The land was bare and fierce winds did blow
And when the ice thawed her waters first flowed

Hunters first found her in those cold days of yore
While seeking the mammoths that then roamed her shores
And then came the age of Lenape lore
And for centuries she saw the splash of their oars

It was thousands of years before the whites came
And the woods were a wild which they sought to tame
The Dutch, Swedes and Scots and the Brits laid their claim
To a river that would never again be the same

Her trees were cut down for building and burning
For feeding the fires of forge and of furnace
And over their dams her water fell churning
Powering their mills, setting waterwheels turning

The ageless river has seen it all
She saw iron empires rise and fall
She's seen cedar trees that stood up two hundred feet tall
Which finally fell to the blade of a saw

British boats were seized by the privateers so bold
And the spoils were taken to the Forks to be sold
And these pirates, these patriots - a fortune they'd make
'Til the English decided 'twas all they would take

They sailed down the ocean and into the Little Egg Sound
They sunk ships and burnt Chestnut Neck to the ground
They headed towards Batsto but to no avail
The Brits did retreat and the rebels prevailed

The river watched industries come and then go
With her tides she saw commerce and trade ebb and flow
She's seen battles that stained her water with blood
And she hides her ghost ships six feet in the mud

For years she saw sailing ships transport their loads
But she was slowly abandoned for the great new railroad
And factories flourished and faltered in turn
And charcoalers left with no trees left to burn

And then the river was quiet and she fell fast asleep
But her past is vast and her secrets she keeps
From the highlands where her headwaters seep
To the mouth of the river where her water runs deep

To what end will she flow?And what fate will she see?
Will she run dry in drought or be drowned by the sea?
Will folly we sow, will ruin she reap?
Or will we stay true to the river we keep?
Will we stay true to the river we keep?

credits

from The Pines of My Past, released March 14, 2016

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