Under the Rose of Sharon,

Under the mother tree,

The petals droop with heavy dew

And shed their fragrance round me.

I survey from this hilltop,

Trees from this mother sprung,

Whose roots are leveling the landscape

To prepare for settlers to come.

And in the evening shadows

Of this long summer day,

The leaves begin to rustle

As the branches slowly sway,

And it seems the entire valley dances

In anticipation of the love

That focuses the hearts' attention

On the deer and dove that live here, now.

And lo, one star is shining in the west.

The evening star has come to give the night its blessing,

To grant the wish

Of marrying the dusk,

Of burying the husk of ritual and forgetting 

Anything you ever knew that was wrong.

We've come west.

Let's settle this place our way

And embrace something true,

And possess ourselves in this

Harbor 'neath the mother tree,

This joy right in the midst of this slow chaos.

-jenn