[Gutenberg 25413] • Blue Ridge Country

Text extracted from opening pages of book: : APPALACHIAN RITUAL Emerald nobility Reaching to the sky, Makes the eye a ruler Fit to measure by. In the spring an ecstasy Lies upon the hills-Purpling with new red-buds, Ruffling colored frills. Make an early ritual For the mountain side; Pine and beech are spectators, White dogwood a bride. Give a pair of ivory birch For a wedding gift, All the mountain side a church Where wild flowers sift Velvet carpet-petals down To the edge of hill and town, Showing wild-grape fringes through Opal cloud-thrones dropped from blue. Now the summer like a queen Does her mountain home in green; With a season for a bier Some old majesty lies here. Autumn gold is swift and fleet With a wing upon the feet, Rushing toward a winter breath Pausing for immaculate death. In such economic bliss And a swift parenthesis In immortal mountain trails, There are resurrection tales. All the while the mountains know Sudden death is never so. Rachel Mack Wilson Contents jr. The Country and th n