You ask me
why I love her,
give me time,
I'll explain.
Have you seen a
Kansas sunset
or an Arizona
rain?
Have you
drifted down a bayou
down Louisiana
way?
Have you
watched the cold fog drifting
over San
Francisco bay?
Have you heard
a Bobwhite calling
in the Carolina
pines?
Or heard the
bellow of a diesel
in the
Appalachia mines?
Does the call
of Niagara thrill you
when you hear
her waters roar?
Look with awe
and wonder
at a
Massachusetts shore --
Where men who
braved a hard new world
first stepped
on Plymouth Rock.
Do you think of
them when you walk along
a New York City
dock?
Have you seen a
snowflake drifting
in the Rockies
way up high?
Have you seen
the sun come blazing down
from a bright
Nevada sky?
Do you hail to
the Columbia as she
rushes to the
sea?
Or bow your
head at Gettysburg in our struggle
to be free?
Have you seen
the mighty Teton?
Watched an
eagle soar?
Have you seen
the Mississippi
roll along
Missouri shore?
Have you felt a
chill at Michigan,
when on a
winter's day her waters rage
along the shore in a thunderous
display?
Does the word
aloha make you warm?
Do you stare in
disbelief
when you see
the surf come roaring
in at Waimea
reef?
From Alaska's
gold to the Everglades,
from the Rio
Grand to Maine,
My heart cries
out, my pulse runs fast
the might of
her domain.
You ask me why
I love her,
I have a
million reasons why --
My beautiful
America, beneath God's wide,
wide sky.
