My trip to visit the Verde River for their “State of the Verde Workshop” was via Australia. The long plane ride from Australia offered many opportunities to watch movies. One of the movies that I enjoyed was, “Rocketman,” about the life of Elton John. In this movie, Elton John ends up in a treatment program at a detox facility. His life-long friend and collaborator Bernie Taupin visits Elton and gives him the lyrics to a new song he wrote. For many years, Bernie had been handing Elton slips of paper with lyrics that Elton set to music. The song that Bernie and Elton collaborated on during Elton’s treatment was entitled, “I’m Still Standing,” to signify Elton’s defiance to addiction and vow to stay sober. This final song in the movie was upbeat and buoyant. The dedication and resilience of the folks involved in the Verde River protection and restoration stimulated me to adapt the Taupin/John song, “I’m Still Standing,” to “Its Still Flowing." The song partnership of Dennison/Parsons is anchored by Kat Parsons. Her version of “Its Still Flowing” drew many smiles and received many positive comments.

I was able to illustrate the song using photos that I obtained in our field trip to the Verde River which included our wonderful aerial overflight, provided by LightHawk.

The lyrics to the song are as follows:

Its Still Flowing
29 Oct 2019
William C. Dennison

You could never know what it’s like
Your water like coffee, clouds right up
And there's a real dirty river that needs some help
So you’ll clean it up making a resilient river you see

Did you think the Verde River could never win
Look at it, it’s coming back again
Its got a resilience in a simple way
And if you need to know while its still flowing, problems fade away

Don't you know its still flowing better than it ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little stream
Its still flowing after all this time
Flowing through the desert without anything on its mind

Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah
Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah

Once it never could hope to win
But starting down the road making it good again
The threats the river had were meant to cut it down
But if our love held true we’d be able to make it right

Don't you know its still flowing better than it ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little stream
Its still flowing after all this time
Flowing through the desert without anything on its mind

Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah
Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah

Don't you know its still flowing better than it ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little stream
Its still flowing after all this time
Flowing through the desert without anything on its mind

Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah
Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah
Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah
Its still flowing yeah yeah yeah