My Conductor

The mist that moves with morning

Slowly peels itself from the lake

I steer my canoe - I ride through it

As a new day comes awake

 Today a loon is my conductor

I still myself to hear it sing

To watch it diving for its food,

To watch it rising in the wind.

But it alone is not speaking

It's all of nature's voice

That I'd rather sit, listen to

Whenever I have the choice

And as my paddle cuts the surface

And off the wood the water drips

I resist the urge to take a stone

To see how far it skips

To disturb the calm would be a crime

A crime I would not commit

It would also be my tranquillity

Feeling the wound it would inflict

There is here, a majesty

It strikes a chord in my heart

And its left a loon's call to remind

That we can never ever part

© 1994 Allan Beveridge