Father of Waters

Accompanying the stained glass window is the following poem; Father of Waters Mississippi is an art form Bounded by a mystery of fallen trees and forgotten elders Amid fertile fields Of imagination Not held back By the hands of time But enlightened by a present past That casts a bright shadow on everyone and everything Where the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first Held fast by traditions That have proven to last What do we see in the middle ground? All our lives around us Of Calvary crosses, catfish, Gospel, blues, and hurricanes Where writers write And musicians sing A ballad not forgotten About eccentric notions Of people expressing their oneness Within a place None other Than home

Historical Context

Commissioned for the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, Father of Waters follows Pearl River Glass's tradition of storytelling by creating a narrative of symbols and scene in art glass and lead, Mississippi river, blues guitar, ascending birds, trees, and others are all used together to communicate Young's artistic vision of Mississippi.