It's That Rideau River Poem by Raymond Farrell

It's that Rideau river
Superficial vein of the earth
Bearing earth's life blood
To plant, animal without prejudice.

When the glaciers receded
The sculpted landscape bore the hewn bed
Left by the melted ice
The flowing water fed
Into the Ottawa, Saint Lawrence
Emptying at last
Into the Atlantic Ocean.

I was not there when the river was born
The geological record speaks of much time
And how things came to be
But cannot tell of the beauty
The fishes that jumped
Otters that played
Ospreys that dove
And eagles that soared
Unchallenged.

The environment was pure and whole
The water full of life
No deadly toxins, no disease bred
Of agricultural or industrial waste
Pollution being a word not yet conceptualized
All drank the river's water freely without fear
As they had done for millennia
None feared or despised
This highway and giver of life.