painted by Arthur Parton, ca 1880
Image courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum
Sustaining many, injuring none
your magic fluid owns claim to natural freedom,
natural beauty.
Creator intended you to survive, Onguiaahra,
through millennia / eons with prayers
of thankfulness for all life
every creature, indeed multitudes of two legged
revere your majesty, come to peer,
to heal, to transform, bathe in your favor,
mysterious ion mist, Creator’s gift.
Though greed of others strives to tame you,
by commanding grip to dominate, fill insatiable need
that only desecrates in attempting to subdue
your ebullient continuousness.
Your thunders and whispers persist as
you, Onguiaahra, pursue your original purpose
Though darkness may surround you still
you inspire and feed our souls
Source: Wendy Sturgeon, 2026
Creator’s Gift was entered into the Niagara Falls Poetry Project’s 25th Anniversary Poetry Contest.
Wendy Sturgeon has been writing poetry and creating art as long as she can remember first under the tutelage of her artist, writer, poet mother. Her first poem published as a teenager, followed with many publishing’s throughout adult life. sporadically while enjoying family life and employment. Poetry is an art form she has returned to more avidly since retiring.