Ira Earl Hudson
January 6th 1961 - December 20th 2023
VIEWING
Terry's Funeral Home
2337 N Williams Ave, Portland, OR 97227
Jan 18th, 2024 @ 4:00pm
GRAVESIDE SERVICES
Willamette National Cemetery
11800 SE MT Scott Blvd, Happy Valley, OR 97086
Jan 19th 2024 @ 1:30pm
Columbia, Willamette stream
Forth their gentle run,
As salmon glint beneath each beam
Of a Northwest sun.
The rain-swelled rivers rise and roll
Back where they began,
Like ups and downs of someone’s soul:
Seasons of a man,
Thrice a coin did flip in the air
methodology affixing this state
located Latitude: 45° 31', North Longitude: 122° 39', West
heads and tails two early settles did blare
Asa Lovejoy and Francis W. Pettygrove respectively
knew after two tosses of copper or silver piece
name of newfound Pacific Northwest settlement
would be a synonym for stout liquor crystal clear
said namesake t’would be epitomized
and accepted by former resident of Maine to win the bet fair
despite a brilliant columnar luminescent shaft
which beam of sun created a near blinding glare
guaranteeing observant native creatures
camouflaging in the verdant undergrowth shielding and attentive hare
despite sitting stock still just a hair breath near
seemingly clasping paws in the guise of a prayer
synonymous with other natural phenomena
like the indigenous fauna and flora never before seen and rare
to these newcomers settling along the confluence
of the Willamette and Columbia rivers
whose present occupants now approaching the two hundredth year!
Winding past sand dunes
like shapes of a cratered moon,
the river moves and ibis stand
on stick thin legs in the grand
flow of the Nile.
Mississippi muds ooze through
headwaters overflow
down to the shrimp bayou.
Macaws call in misty dawn
awakening monkey chatter
through swamps of the Amazon.
Frothy rapids cascade past
cliffs that strain to touch the sky
above the Colorado's roar.
Out of the old growth forest
comes a gurgle of water rushing as
the Willamette appears before us.
Winding, moving, crashing,
frothing, gurgling, roaring, oozing,
the stuff on which our lives depend,
our heritage,
our kin ...
this water.