Post by Raymond Neely on Jan 31, 2011 9:16:59 GMT -5
by Raymond Neely
From the top of the knob,
the lookout tower,
I stand scaffolded
into the cloudy blue
West Virginia sky,
and see for miles.
Down below,
over the hill,
uncle's rock house in Pipestem
is hidden by summer trees,
and to the right is our home
on Pine Grove.
Spinning to the right,
with arms spread wide,
expecting a hug from the lands,
I their native son
see the rugged ridge of Bent Mountain
which turns back on itself,
the windswept plateau of Flat Top,
the Bluestone River valley
with calossal steep hills
built up around it,
the McKeever Lodge,
Sunvalley Lake,
toward Beckley,
toward Hinton,
toward Athens and Princeton.
I am dawned upon by my
coordinates in time and space.
I have thought of leaving, of moving,
then, I think how living somewher else
is the same, how one is trapped in
the same life, only with different
people and scenery,
probably less safe than here,
and why other people stay,
because it would be too difficult to
transplant.
Why do I stay where kin blood flows?
natural beauty, truthfully, that of the mountains
which delights the eyes and mind,
clean healthy nature,
and backroads to drive.
From the top of the knob,
the lookout tower,
I stand scaffolded
into the cloudy blue
West Virginia sky,
and see for miles.
Down below,
over the hill,
uncle's rock house in Pipestem
is hidden by summer trees,
and to the right is our home
on Pine Grove.
Spinning to the right,
with arms spread wide,
expecting a hug from the lands,
I their native son
see the rugged ridge of Bent Mountain
which turns back on itself,
the windswept plateau of Flat Top,
the Bluestone River valley
with calossal steep hills
built up around it,
the McKeever Lodge,
Sunvalley Lake,
toward Beckley,
toward Hinton,
toward Athens and Princeton.
I am dawned upon by my
coordinates in time and space.
I have thought of leaving, of moving,
then, I think how living somewher else
is the same, how one is trapped in
the same life, only with different
people and scenery,
probably less safe than here,
and why other people stay,
because it would be too difficult to
transplant.
Why do I stay where kin blood flows?
natural beauty, truthfully, that of the mountains
which delights the eyes and mind,
clean healthy nature,
and backroads to drive.
