Love Letters to Niagara Falls – ‘Father Hennepin’s’ Niagara [by 2chicks2go]

Niagara Falls is challenging people to write a love letter – to Niagara Falls! We have been regarded as the “Honeymoon Capital of the World” for decades, but now it’s time to send some love to Niagara. Anyone is able to enter, just go to the following site and add your letter: http://www.niagara-usa.com/blog/love-letters-niagara-usa/

As our addition, one of the “2chicks”, Sherrie, wrote the following as her Love Letter to Niagara Falls:

Some of you may not know who Father Hennepin was. Louis Hennepin was a Belgian explorer and Catholic priest who first introduced Niagara Falls to the world. He wrote what became a popular book (A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America) of his explorations of North America, including his initial eye witness account of Niagara Falls.

http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=812

This poem tries to capture the essence of his experience.

‘Father Hennepin’s’ Niagara

By Sherrie Robins, copyright 2014

I walked through the woods, dark and heavy
They lent to me their dim light,
The crunch of leaf and berry,
The sweet smelling verdant bite.

But it wasn’t the woods that called that day,
Not floral or fauna’s woo,
But the thunder and roar
That dragged and bore
Me up and forward, true.

The words first called me upward,
The rumor, the lore, then the facts,
The Explorers first heard
The enticing word
But the Natives bore words on their backs.

Of their world they had full awareness,
Of each leaf, each berry, the vine
And the waters that thundered
Left them in great wonder
Of the Spirit’s creation, divine.

Betwixt Ontario and Erie,
Lay a vast, prodigious display,
A glorious cadence of water
Falling down in renown, ’tis true.

And n’er were we ‘ere so astonished,
Surprised and humbled, us few,
That the entire Universe had stumbled,
Upon this terrible and glorious refrain.

For when the darkened veil had been lifted,
And the waters came into full view
I’d yet heard them call, from their thunderous fall,
For many a mile, ’tis true.

The waters they ripped and they thundered
They foamed and they boiled,
As they tumbled and toiled
And crashed on the rocks, this great brew

And n’er were we ‘ere so astonished,
Surprised and humbled, us few
That the entire Universe stumbled,
On this terrible and glorious refrain.

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