Owe It to Yourself

At a bend in the traces of the Rio Grande

is a narrow canyon where you owe it to yourself to stand.

The hot desert breezes speak a thousand years

of hushed and still voices you owe it to yourself to hear.

You're not really free until

you pay these things you owe.

You cannot call the land your own

that you don't really know.

There's an old wooden lighthouse standing by the sea

close to the breakers where you owe it to yourself to be.

The gulls cry and circle to the sand and rocks

on that windy shoreline that you owe it to yourself to walk.

You're not really free...

There's a message that's carved in stone and hidden high

on a misty mountaintop that you owe it to yourself to find.

In its rough, ragged faces you can clearly read

the touch of time passing you owe it to yourself to see.

You're not really free...

The rough cut video was posted on YouTube on 8/6/11 - click here to watch that video.