Gazing into the mirror, tears streaming down my cheeks. Not understanding what's happening. A child of eight, maybe ten staring back. Why me?
I had chosen to live isolated from humanity, deep in the Appalachian mountains. Society had become too corrupt. I trusted no one. My friends, all gone. My family disowned me - a freak, a loser they called me. I was content to live out the remainder of my life alone, with only the birds and the squirrels to keep me company. Every night I prayed for death to visit early so this useless life would end.
But death has escaped me. Relief may never come. Trapped in an endless loop ever since that day, that cursed day when I was struck by lightning while fetching wood for the fire. There was no storm, no clouds. Something strange and surreal happened to me in that moment. I didn't die.
Now I live in misery, my body setting and resetting, aging then reversing, then aging again. O how I long for it to end, to sleep the eternal sleep, to simply cease to exist. For you see, I am 195 years old. Time stops for no one in this place, this hellish hole I've fallen into. At least not for me. Please God, help me. Please, LET IT END!
Categories:
appalachian mountains, age, destiny,
Form: Free verse
I miss the open highway
I’m besotted with quick getaways.
What other sensation can compare
to pulling G’s with wind-whipped hair?
When my foots on the throttle,
I feel unstoppable.
Faster, faster, no faster,
that’s the rush I’m after.
Where are we going?
There’s just no knowing,
but no matter where we roam,
the GPS will get us home.
One thing was guaranteed,
the speed limit would be exceeded.
I adored the wide open straightaways
and the feeling of a racing-day at Marseilles.
I remember in the Appalachian mountains
the plunging, snake-like, winding canyons
as the digital dashboard display passed ninety
how my eschort, Charles, would glare at me.
I’d let off - a little - and laugh, I mean,
isn’t freedom the American dream?
To hear the growl of a V8 motor,
as it turns rural-roads into roller coasters.
Categories:
appalachian mountains, car, celebration, emotions, fun,
Form: Rhyme
Appalachian Mountains for hiking so awesome
Beauteously inviting while snow-blanketed…
Carpeted with ice, Niagara Falls stop cascading
Delightfully stunning along frozen water display…
Enchanting hot springs in Japan offer healing efficacy
Fascination-sites as macaques soak themselves fabulously…
Grand Canyon midst snowflakes shines radiantly gorgeous
Hoisting hopefulness for trekking, never hampered…
Interesting glaciers in Alaska with roaming moose’ impact
Jubilant indeed, along aurora borealis spectacle, wondrously joyous…
Kindled with serene ambiance is Swiss Alps of gorgeous viewing keys
Lake Geneva offering panoramic scenes likewise…
My birth province, blest by God* with garden terraces’ marvels
Nourishes Winter virtual vacation with gladness along nostalgic nurturing….
*1Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
January 16, 2022
"Modified Double ABC"
8th place, "Winter Wonders Within Nature" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by M. L. Kiser; judged on 1/23/2022.
Categories:
appalachian mountains, appreciation, blessing, christian, god,
Form: ABC
Sawing logs, one after another
Into two feet lengths
Just for the specific purpose
Of standing them up on the ground
Awaiting the iron axe
That will create a comforting
Roaring fire in the hearth
Come this winter’s cold
Canning fruits and vegetables
To store on the shelves
Awaiting the moment in time
When they’ll be lifted out
And opened slowly, carefully
With appreciation for the color
The scent and deliciousness
Of a homegrown and canned food
Cutting down hay in the field
Tractor moving slowly, assuredly
Taking the blade to the grass
Green and pungent scented
Covering the field with what will
Be racked up into piles for
Baling and creating a treasure
For the barn to store for cattle
Categories:
appalachian mountains, autumn, blessing, fruit, seasons,
Form: Free verse
Emerald pines and jade laurels
Crisp, cool air misting beyond the range
Of peaks that ascend to meet
The clear, indigo heavens complete
With bleached snowy puffs of cotton
Drifting into silhouettes, characters
Both soft and yearning – floating
Into the horizon where they play
Dancing through the impression
Of a peaceful, tender moment
God’s artistic hand pressing down
Against the Appalachian mountains
Categories:
appalachian mountains, beauty, creation, god, nature,
Form: Free verse
Well and there is a LOST SEA
Somewhere running through
The crystal caverns down and
Around the foot hills of the
Appalachian Mountains...
I remember some kind of strange
Indian folklore from many lifetimes
Lived before, you look into my eyes
By firelight and you can clearly
See all the tribal signs of mine and
I got this sense of de ja vu all over
Again as voices come whispering to
Me in the wild night wind...
Well I can feel the a strong vibration
Of an ancient and powerful magic
Sense the beginning of creation, in
The shadow of the moon's shadow
As you begin to chant and I enter into
A trance, seeing the faces of the ancestors
And the elders, as the sacred smoke
Rises high up in the midnight sky and
Talking to me as if they were alive...
Well it's the ceremony of Sequoya
And my re-initiation into the secret
Indian nation as raven's circle my head
In a giant star like formation...
Somewhere down and around the
The hallowed grounds of a crystal cavern
Somewhere under the foothills of
The Appalachian Mountains...
Well I am led down now to the LOST SEA
And reborn an honorary wet winged
Cherokee!
Categories:
appalachian mountains, lost, mountains, sea,
Form: Free verse
Appalachian Sister
Wherever I roam,
You go too.
A piece of home,
Follows.
A smile, a song,
The sound of an owl.
Those Appalachian mountains,
Live inside of me.
Your laughter,
The white water creeks.
Your voice,
The whispering winds.
Intertwined,
In my memories.
I think of one,
I think of the other.
Sisters,
And mountains.
Part of me,
We are never apart.
By: Darlene Doll Smith
Categories:
appalachian mountains, childhood, family, mountains, native
Form: Rhyme
We welcome Spring with blooms
From bright red and yellow tulips
It feels like the season of flumes
With the scent of fresh hyssops
Summer skies roll on around
With gently floating white clouds
Fresh mown lawns cover the ground
Leaving crisp, emerald shrouds
When Autumn happens through
With orange, red and amber hues
The entire world is a changed view
Mountains painted brilliantly new
Winter covers the world in white
Enchanting icicles hanging from trees
All the world is dazzling even at night
It’s a wonderland of a peaceful freeze
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter
In the Appalachian Mountains we find
There is no place to be found any better
Seasons of bliss surround us with a design
God’s paintbrush has chosen our world
To leave impressions of such joy and beauty
Colors assorted, mixed and swirled
To create a vision of dreamy bounty
©July 29, 2014
Written for Vibrant Verses Contest
Categories:
appalachian mountains, autumn, nature, seasons, spring,
Form: Rhyme
Far away in a galaxy once unknown to man
A vision of mass seen from other land
She does rest there, with her people of many
North America a land of plenty
A sub continent broken away from years gone past
She lies there watching with her coast land so vast
Included are the sub-regions here to name a few, from the Great Plains
and the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the great basin with a view
The Canadian Arctic with waters of crystal blue
California and Alaska a flat eastern region, wouldn’t you agree
And the varied eastern region in the Appalachian Mountains ,can't you see?
Along to the Atlantic seaboard and the Florida peninsula there are fountains
Mexico with its long plateaus and cordilleras falls, is largely in the western region,
although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf so pleasing.
Categories:
appalachian mountains, history, places, sciencemountains, ,
Form: Free verse