America, Why I Love Her

You ask me Why I Love Her?
 Well, give me time and I'll explain.
Have you seen a Kansas sunset
 Or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou
Down Louisiana way?
Have you watched a cold fog drifting
Over San Francisco Bay?
Have you heard a bobwhite calling
In the Carolina pines,

Or heard the bellow of a diesel
 At the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you
When you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and wonder
 At her Massachusetts shore,
Where men who braved a hard new world
First stepped on Plymouth's rock?
And do you think of them when you stroll
 Along a New York City dock?
Have you seen a snowflake drifting
 In the Rockies, way up high?

Have you seen the sun come blazing down
 From a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia
As she rushes to the sea,
Or bow your head at Gettysburg
 At our struggle to be free?
Have you seen the mighty Tetons?
Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi
Roll along Missouri's shore?

Have you felt a chill at Michigan
 When on a winter's day
Her waters rage along the shore
 In thunderous display?
Does the word "Aloha" make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief
When you see the surf
 Come roaring in at Waimea Reef?
From Alaska's cold to the Everglades,

 From the Rio Grande to Maine,
My heart cries out, my pulse runs fast
At the might of her domain.
You ask me Why I Love Her?
I've a million reasons why:
My Beautiful America,
Beneath God's wide, wide sky.

~ John Mitchum ~