<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Appalachian Elegy (Sections 1-6)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">hear them cry</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the long dead</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the long gone</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">speak to us</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">from beyond the grave</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">guide us</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">that we may learn</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">all the ways</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">to hold tender this land</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">hard clay direct</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">rock upon rock</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">charred earth</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">in time</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">strong green growth</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">will rise here</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">trees back to life</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">native flowers</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">pushing the fragrance of hope</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the promise of resurrection</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">2.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">such then is beauty</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">surrendered</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">against all hope</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">you are here again</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">turning slowly</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">nature as chameleon</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">all life change</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">and changing again</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">awakening hearts</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">steady moving from</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">unnamed loss</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">into fierce deep grief</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">that can bear all burdens</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">even the long passage</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">into a shadowy dark</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">where no light enters</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">3.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">night moves</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">through the thick dark</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a heavy silence outside</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">near the front window</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a black bear</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">stamps down plants</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">pushing back brush</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">fleeing manmade</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">confinement</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">roaming unfettered</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">confident</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">any place can become home</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">strutting down</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a steep hill</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">as though freedom</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">is all</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">in the now</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">no past</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">no present</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">4.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">earth works</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">thick brown mud</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">clinging pulling</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a body down</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">heard wounded earth cry</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">bequeath to me</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the hoe the hope</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">ancestral rights</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">to turn the ground over</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">to shovel and sift</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">until history</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">rewritten resurrected</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">returns to its rightful owners</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a past to claim</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">yet another stone lifted to</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">throw against the enemy</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">making way for new endings</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">random seeds</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">spreading over the hillside</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">wild roses</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">come by fierce wind and hard rain</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">unleashed furies</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">here in this touched wood</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a dirge a lamentation</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">for earth to live again</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">earth that is all at once a grave</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a resting place a bed of new beginnings</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">avalanche of splendor</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">5.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">small horses ride me</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">carry my dreams</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">of prairies and frontiers</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">where once</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the first people roamed</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">claimed union with the earth</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">no right to own or possess</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">no sense of territory</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">all boundaries</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">placed by unseen ones</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">here I will give you thunder</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">shatter your hearts with rain</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">let snow soothe you</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">make your healing water</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">clear sweet</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a sacred spring</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">where the thirsty</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">may drink</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">animals all</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">6.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">listen little sister</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">angels make their hope here</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">in these hills</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">follow me</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I will guide you</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">careful now</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">no trespass</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I will guide you</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">word for word</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">mouth for mouth</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">all the holy ones</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">embracing us</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">all our kin</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">making home here</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">renegade marooned</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">lawless fugitives</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">grace these mountains</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">we have earth to bind us</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the covenant</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">between us</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">can never be broken</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">vows to live and let live</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- bell hooks</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(<span style="color: rgb(43, 43, 43); font-family: Roboto, Arial, Sans-sarif; font-size: 17px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">September 25, 1952 - December 15, 2021)</span></div></div></body></html>