I Am The Mother's Child

Dawn on Tiger Hill, the blood-red stain

Of sunrise on the slopes of Everest,

Ten thousand feet below the Indus plain,

Ten thousand feet above the icy crest.

We have known mountains formidable as love,

A deeply spiritual unity,

Above the highest peaks we soared and dove

Into the canyon depths of tragedy.

I have walked alone among the redwood trees

And known the joy and sweetness earth can give,

Communed in silence with divinities

Who far from man's destruction calmly live.

In forests where the giant hemlocks grew

I learned the secrets of an ancient lore,

In the chanting on the boughs my spirit knew

The one whom I was destined to adore.

In calm I watched the jet-black jaguars play

On fallen limbs, the quail around my feet,

A new-born fawn from out the dappled ray

Approached with limpid eyes my woodland seat

And I was unafraid, my soul at peace,

At one with all the creatures of the wild.

I know by Grace this sorrow too shall cease

And joy return. I am the Mother's child.