Dame Nevada
July – August 2014
Written in honor of Nevada’s Sesquicentennial 1864 – 2014
By Waddie Mitchell Honorary Poet for Nevada’s Sesquicentennial
There’s a basin, wrought of reason, tortoise dry and clean of air Where rivers hike to meet their fate, get lost and disappear Where Grand Adventure had a say and different would prevail And where only hardy life hangs on to all that it entails
Where hidden hints of Eden are revealed to those who seek And where Bristlecone stand sentinel from high atop her peaks Where the Shoshone and the Paiute and the Washo stories tell; ‘If we but live within Her wishes, we will prosper and live well’
Deemed and destined Dame Nevada, cloaked in sage and sunset crowned Making sense and friends and legends, turning prudence upside down She alludes to and may prove to be enigma in disguise Dealing wisdom and compassion, still, refusing compromise
She’s the rugged scent of essence and immense in scope and feel Mountainous and rightly stubborn, cold and sensuous and real Open minded and closed fisted and diverse in all She’s of And, as tight with Her resources as She’s liberal with Her love
And She settled hardy settlers, and She dished prospectors ore And She was booming as the U. S. fought its most un-Civil War And when there’s have and needed, bureaucratic tape gets cleared So, She’s flown the flag of statehood now, one hundred fifty years
And as stewards of Her masterpiece, the standards been set high, Be protective and responsive to Her needs and feed Her pride And as Nevadans, we should not forget what native stories tell; ‘If we but live within her wishes, we will prosper and live well’