Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak
"Spacious Skies"
Showing posts with label Riverwalk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Riverwalk. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Riverwalk Spirit of Trees




I like pictures with images from different angles and symmetries.  River Walk in Columbus, Georgia has many hardwood trees growing at the river base.  Some were planted but many are wild.  The trees add a spirit to the river that is inviting and alluring.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

RiverWalk "The Song of the Chattahoochee"






The RiverWalk is an outdoor 15-mile linear park that hugs the banks of the Chattahoochee River.  For centuries, the Chattahoochee River has flowed from the mountains of North Georgia to the oyster beds of the Florida Panhandle. Sometimes a trickle. Sometimes angrily slapping against the rocks.  On Good Friday, It was a gorgeous walk and I never get tired of the river.  I grew up on the Chattahoochee River banks and it is home to me. It is an intrigue part of my southern heritage and childhood memories.  I watched several boys fishing along it's banks and it brought back my own memories of playing on the river bank and catching bugs.


The beauty of the Chattahoochee River is commemorated in the epic poem The Song of the Chattahoochee (1877), by the noted Georgian poet Sidney Lanier.

The Song Of The Chattahoochee
                                 
Out of the hills of Habersham,
Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall,
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With a lover's pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys of Hall.

All down the hills of Habersham,
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried 'Abide, abide,'
The willful waterweeds held me thrall,
The laving laurel turned my tide,
The ferns and the fondling grass said 'Stay,'
The dewberry dipped for to work delay,
And the little reeds sighed 'Abide, abide,
Here in the hills of Habersham,
Here in the valleys of Hall.'

High o'er the hills of Habersham,
Veiling the valleys of Hall,
The hickory told me manifold
Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall
Wrought me her shadowy self to hold,
The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,
Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign,
Said, 'Pass not, so cold, these manifold
Deep shades of the hills of Habersham,
These glades in the valleys of Hall.'

And oft in the hills of Habersham,
And oft in the valleys of Hall,
The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone
Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl,
And many a luminous jewel lone
-- Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist,
Ruby, garnet and amethyst --
Made lures with the lights of streaming stone
In the clefts of the hills of Habersham,
In the beds of the valleys of Hall.

But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward the voices of Duty call --
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o'er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.