GUALALA IS THE NAME OF THE RIVER is New to the Lyrics Collection...just wrote it 'today'! It's about an experience I had up in the hills above the town of Gualala on the Central Coast about an hour and 1/2 from Mendocino...there lived my Anthropologist Friend...it was in the 80s...The People were there in Ceremony...it was Spring....if you have the Music for this one: write and arrange it and perform it! It has special meaning for me, surely....

GUALALA IS THE NAME OF THE RIVER


CHORUS:

Gualala is the name of the River
The otters play there right down to the Sea
"Where The Waters Meet" the Pomo call her
Canoed and learned of Life there, you and me
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Way up in the Rancheria
Some one hundred Kashia Pomo stay:
Tend land and streams without disturbing nothin' -
Work and teach their school and keep The Way...
Let the neighbors right into the Round House
For Strawberry Festival and Song:
Dance and clap their elderberry clapper sticks -
Keep you in their Trances all day long....
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Chorus
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Speakin' in Kashaya of the Hokan:
Singin' of the Red Foxes, the Sun -
Dancin' with Coyote into Prayer Time -
Sharin' of the Food when Dancin's done...
Keep the Fire lightin' up the Singing:
And the many Shadows on the wall
Of the People sittin' there so quiet:
Keeps a Solemn Silence on us all...
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Chorus
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I ain't known for being superstitious -
I can't say I can recall one prayer:
But bein' in that Roundhouse in the springtime
I swear I feel The Spirit everywhere...
Can't say all the world will come to Peace now
Just because Kashia Pomo sing:
But I sure taste the Strawberries are Holy
And I can feel This Life in everything....
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Chorus
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