Jean Boese - "Louisiana", The Poem

"Louisiana", The Poem

Her best known poem, "Louisiana," was read at the dedication of the Louisiana Archives Building in 1987. The poem is especially poignant to natives of Louisiana:

I love Louisiana with its cotton fields and trees

And the Spanish moss that flutters with the slightest bit of breeze.

I love the fields of sugar cane, the grazing cattle herds,

The sweet scented magnolias filled with brightly colored birds.

I love the lazy bayous that meander through the state,

Where bass and bream and speckled perch and crawfish lie in wait.

I love the mighty rivers that flowed where we now tread,

Atchafalaya, Mississippi and the clay filled Red.

I love the forests filled with game, I'm proud that from our soil

Come shrimp and oysters from the Gulf, and sulphur, salt and oil.

I love the lush green levees stretching far as eyes can see.

Louisiana has my love, because it's part of me.