Springtime for the Nation

by Arthur Mampel

From a winter long and harsh
Comes softer spring and kinder breeze,
Comes budding branch and wetland marsh
To put the battered heart at ease.

All around the lively scene
Erupts a splendor brightly paired
With creatures waking in their dens
The fox, the beaver, elk and bear

The blue of sky and forest green
The rousing hills and mountain slope,
And down the way the river bends,
No season ever gave more hope.

Our Nation, too, has roused from night
And from a winter’s dying gloom,
Like cadavers brought to life
There is a will to make things right,

Another chance to prove our worth
Another way to right the wrong
And like the spring that brings new birth
We trade the darkness for the dawn.