A RIVER CALLED MIRAMICHI

I tried to write a traditional folk song about the Miramichi and this is what I came up with all those years ago. Although I play the guitar and sing the lyrics I post here I'm not really a musician and would rather hear my songs performed by those who are. I was delighted to learn that this song had been performed at the Miramichi Folk Festival and also has been sung by a children's choir there. Huzzah!

A RIVER CALLED MIRAMICHI

There’s a river whose waters are known everywhere

Men sing of her salmon and beauty so fair

She’s famous, yet hidden, a grand mystery

I sing of the river called Miramichi

I was born on her banks where I shed my first tear

In the time of Black Salmon, the Spring of the year

And I sang my first hymn on my Grandmother’s knee

Near the swift running waters of the Miramichi

Chorus

Let us sing of a river so wild and so free

She’s timeless, yet changing, she flows to the sea.

No place short of Heaven, where I’d rather be

Than the banks of the river called Miramichi

My father drove logs on the river with skill

As young as I was I remember it still

He went to the war so we’d always be free

He fought for his family and the Miramichi

As a boy I would swim in her waters so cool

When older, I guided the sports through the pools

And often the guides were just young lads like me

Revealing the secrets of the Miramichi

(Chorus)

Like many before me I moved far away

In search of adventure, employment and pay

But this place where I’m living is not home to me

I long for the banks of the Miramichi

Some struggle for power and silver and gold

Some think life can be bought and happiness sold

But anyone’s poor who’s unable to see

The beauty and splendors of the Miramichi

© 1994 Dale Petley (Petitcodiac)