Across wide woods caressing all
a voice drowns out a waterfall
with mystic hymn hard to describe
yet glorious to every tribe:

tradition's rhythms lifting wind
reviving timeless rites of song
as long and steady rivers flow
as eagles speed through indigo

inviting minds to pause and muse
suspend lost causes so to choose
to contemplate a deeper tour
of wonders missed and worlds before

where one comes closer to this ground
and learns all bound within this sound
which resonates through hearts of stone
and orchestrates a dance unknown

until you journey outside fears
confronting wasteful silenced years
when music stirred no sway in you
your movements merely what you do.

We celebrate a dawn's new birth.
Come consecrate essential earth.
These meditative tones recite
those sacred beauties of our light.

Our reverence echoes through the land
all walks of life might understand
- even creatures crept in brush
awaken in our taming hush:

the snakes and grizzlies leave their fray
coyotes leap with deer to play
as porcupines and wolves cavort
and raccoons crows and frogs consort.

Our ceremony serenades
down the valleys past the glades
by broken branches over mud
old bones and flowers yet to bud

to honor blessed harmony
indigenous in all we see
in every breath and lyric heard
toward any cloud from every bird

around new moons in ancient lakes
beside our shovels and our rakes
in tapestries we weave for weeks
and totems and the sky which speaks

of rain for seeds our hands must plant
beyond the circles of our chant.
Over mountain peaks and sun
this drumming summons everyone.