Henry's Songbook

River of blue cut through the valley
Swept past the billows and the sandy bar
Ran so swift, locked in my memory
But the way things were is not the way things are
We used to swim in the crook of its arm
In the summer heat who could be blamed
Avoided the rapids as best as we could
Never thought that that stream could be tamed

Long ago I gave up that riverside valley
Traded coulees for towers of steel
Abandoned the vistas and valleys of childhood
For the things that they told me were real
No more would I run with the speed of a colt
Cross the gravel down by water side
To race with the twig I threw in at the bend
Couldn't beat it though God knows I tried

Now the river's not running as fast as it did
There's a dam there restricting the flow
And I don't run either as fast as I could
Guess that river and I have grown old

Now it's strange in returning to places of youth
It seems your memory has made a mistake
'Cause the place that once scared you with white water running
Has been turned by decree to a lake
Makes me think about how too I smoothed out the wrinkles
Made the waters as calm as you please
Makes me think about how that river and I
Were both happier when we ran free

Now the river's not running as fast as it did
There's a dam there restricting the flow
And I don't run either as fast as I could
Guess that river and I have grown old

[1993:] For the members of the Alberta Wilderness Association and a curse on the spinelessness of the Canadian and Alberta governments for allowing the construction of the Old Man River Dam. (Notes James Keelaghan, 'My Skies')