Wednesday, August 28, 2019

A Poem "At Beaver Lake"

On April 12, 1719 Rev. James MacGregor
held the first church service in Nutfield on the shores of Beaver Lake

At Beaver Lake

"...a hiding place from the winds and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land"
--Ezekiel 32:3, from the first Nutfield sermon by the Rev. James MacGregor, Beaver Lake April 12, 1719

As evening fell along the shore,
worried too much about the rent,
I think of kin, anxious and poor,
       that crossed the sea
to a new and dangerous continent.
       Follow me.

Through miles of wilderness they took
their bearings in a trackless wood.
They settled by West Running Brook,
      weary but free.
The fathers said they'd found it good.
     Come with me. 

How did those immigrants endure?
How did they make it through that year?
They, too, were fearful and unsure
     of what would be.
I thought I heard the sermon here.
    Believe in me.
                                       -- Robert Crawford
                                           Derry, New Hampshire Poet Laureate


Robert Crawford read "At Beaver Lake"
during the Founders Day celebration in April 2019
in Derry, New Hampshire


For the truly curious:

"Derry Names Its First Poet Laureate"  Derry News

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Poem "At Beaver Lake" ", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 28, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-poem-at-beaver-lake.html: accessed [access date]). 

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