Northern Nevada, early Spring and comes rain.
The Owyhee River, barely a drop does gain.
But every drop flows three hundred forty-six miles then into the Snake drains.
The Snake, a miracle in the desert, goes to show,
Water knows no too great a foe
For the mighty forces of waters’ flow,
As the deepest river gorge in North America is carved at its hand.
Thousands of years of persistence cuts thousands of feet into the land,
Inhospitable desert forced to open up into something grand
And the Snake River, for mile after mile,
Has defined the region’s lifestyle;
Farmers, ranchers, miners, rough and tough, but kind all the while.
North, the Grande Ronde contributes to the mighty Snake’s flow as a tributary
Below vast expanses of dry, but beautiful, prairie
That supports wheat, corn, chicken, pork, dairy.
A short distance north, the Snake meets its confluence
With the powerful Columbia, which exerts an even greater influence
As it boasts a wide canyon that left once mighty rock in ruins.
And another three hundred nine miles, the rains from Nevada empty into the Pacific;
Drop after drop carried for 1,025 miles,
As nature’s greatest force defined desert basins, carved a continent’s deepest scar and defied the Cascades
To meet the greatest ocean.
A hot summer day over the Pacific and water is called to the sky
And carried east to the desert in clouds miles high
Before over Northern Nevada, rain drops fall as the heavens cry
Water’s never-ending cycle and defining characteristics;
Perseverance, Patience,
Endurance