A little poetic inspiration for you all. Obviously very American in some of the details, but there's some great lines in here that really spoke to me.
Mmm...might have to change the quote on my sig line!..
Call of the Wild
By: Robert W. Service
Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where theres nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the
blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley with the
green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
then for Gods sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the deserts little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped oer the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild its calling you.
Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes?
mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the maps void spaces,
mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild its wanting you.
Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
Done things just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(Youll never hear it in the family pew.)
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things
Then listen to the Wild its calling you.
They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase;
youre a credit to their teaching
But cant you hear the Wild? its calling you.
Let us probe the silent places,
let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
Theres a whisper on the night-wind,
theres a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling let us go.
Mmm...might have to change the quote on my sig line!..
Call of the Wild
By: Robert W. Service
Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where theres nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the
blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley with the
green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
then for Gods sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the deserts little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped oer the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild its calling you.
Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes?
mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the maps void spaces,
mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild its wanting you.
Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
Done things just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(Youll never hear it in the family pew.)
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things
Then listen to the Wild its calling you.
They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase;
youre a credit to their teaching
But cant you hear the Wild? its calling you.
Let us probe the silent places,
let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
Theres a whisper on the night-wind,
theres a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling let us go.
