A Heaven Beneath The Sky

 

There is a place called Windemere

On Chebeague Island in Southern Maine

From there they say on a day quite clear

You can see all the way to Spain

 

The Meads our friends invited us here

to share with them in pleasure

The natural beauty of Windemere

a long held family treasure

 

From Nibblick Point to Doughty's store

The Islanders meet with a wave

They share a sense of the Island1s lore

Of Mariners steadfast and brave

 

The Lobster buoys are scattered

In a colorful and bobbing array

They tell of a life that mattered

Of seamen on Casco Bay

 

One day as we sat and listened

Mark Dyer sang of a Heaven beneath the sky

He said t1was a place where the twilight glistened

On beautiful Casco Bay did it lie

 

The Whaler's sang a poignant tune of love

of broken boats and times gone by.

T'was their own they remembered and lilted of

On the beach now high and dry.

 

Up and down the Bay does the Casco Ferry sail

you can spy them as they come round the head

All chock full of passengers and cargo and mail

A welcome sight to see in yellow and black and red.

 

As the sun sinks over the swaying ash and oak

and the children are tucked safely in bed

my gaze wanders aloft to the inky, star-studded cloak

And I know now that God can't be dead

 

For I see now that a part of him lives here

On Chebeague Island in Casco Bay

And I Thank Him for letting me come near

His Heaven beneath the sky today

 

And as I see in my mind's remembered eye

The blue waters crashing upon the windward shore.

A mirage of Chebeague Isle floats upon the sky

And I will smile at what I found there ever more.

 

-Joseph Xavier Martin