Raven Park

Near my home, small town West Virginia, beside the roadside marked by historical sign, is a simple nature area, Raven Park, an Edgar Allan Poe memorial shrine. Uphill, a stately mansion, overlooks the valley; estate boundaries used to touch the river, home of early, wealthy town settlers, before times changed, divided into slivers all the large, gracious property tracts. Here, it is said, Poe visited years before the war, and spent time visiting the family, heard the raven quoting, "Nevermore." In an upstairs bedroom, dark of night, Poe had his famous poetic vision, dark raven visitation, prophetic dissertation, and realized with blackened reason that from the spell and darkened shadow there would never be freedom from beautiful Lenore. Still today, we quote his song of passion and tell the legendary love forevermore. © Faye Lanham Gibson, September 22, 2014