states beauty is seen
pull-offs for scenic views
tunnel through the mountains
.
…I knowz there be
Otherz with know
uv the
Appalachians
Yet i swearz by it by
Thunder
I know
their fair
In mine own dukes
clinching ever so
damn gently
With each their digits
i helped her
rode
She wuz proud uv
She
hern naked
pretty soul…
Ancient, rugged hills worn down by time
I miss the lush green hills of my home
Leaning away from the peaceful valley,
Mountains forged from eons long forgotten
During those prehistoric periods before
Earliest settlers found the Appalachians,
Already old, tired, and wrinkled, awaiting
The laughter of young children discovering,
Holding the secrets of ancestors denied
Their birthright by Jacobs and Jacob-ites
Where old waters flow down into new,
New River old, maybe older, than the Nile.
I miss the lush green hills of my home
Leaning away from the peaceful valley
Where John Deere still breaks the ground
In the springtime after a long, hard winter,
And where flowers bloom into October
Especially if Mother Nature allows them.
And she does, for that is her mountain way,
Creating an everlasting yearning for reunion
Back home in those West Virginia hills.
POEM OF THE DAY, December 2, 2021
Poetry Soup
written November 30, 2021
#49 on the Best New Poems List on Poetry Soup
December 8, 2021
I grew up in the high Appalachians
Near the rim of the newest parklands,
Before strangers discovered the beauty
And the possibilities of running the rapids,
Enterprising out-of-staters saw promise
Buying up the small farms and fields,
Making them summer whitewater camps.
Now, real money is being made while
The seasons allow the sounds of laughter,
Drowning out dejected sighs of poverty
In the high Appalachians where I was born.
written September 12, 2021
My roots lie buried in an unbroken line of brave men and women, my ancestors,
who, with boundless courage, sought a place where freedom was limitless and prized--from the Jersey shores to the Appalachians they trekked, finding bottomless seams of black gold, but the riches of infinite faith were their most valuable contribution to their endless posterity, generations to come…in an everlasting seam as bold and courageous as they, in their eternal rest, could ever have remotely imagined.
SECOND PLACE WINNER
written June 3, 2021
for "Writing Prompt - Endless" poetry contest
sponsored by Constance La France
Yesterday I owned the world
I did what I had to do
And then more.
My home was clean
Laundry caught up
And then a trip to the store.
Children were fed
Sports and lessons done
And they began to soar.
Mistakes were made
Arguments had
The slamming of the door.
Money so tight
Never enough
It turned out we were poor.
Didn’t stay in contact
Lost my friend too soon
Cutting to the core.
Waited to hike the Appalachians
No energy this year
Life was suddenly a chore.
A few more years
Passed again
Opportunities no more.
And I realized I was old.
The land shapes people and people shape lands
Tug River tells tales about feudist stands
'Tween Kentuck and Virginny the river runs
Where the rival families took up their guns
Hatfields 'n McCoys roamed "Murder Land"
Cried 'n died by each other's hand
Details were as much fancy as they were fact
As was this revengeful ongoing hillbilly pact
Newspapers spun this yarn of "Outlaw Class"
Took over a hundred years for this plague to pass
"Devil Anse" 'n "Randall" were the family foes
Long-living cheek and jowl as legend goes
Cost many a life of wife, son and daughter
Through decades of feuding, senseless slaughter
Some say that they were driven out by rail
Others knew enmity should surely prevail
Eastern investors were clearly after coal
In the end, as always, control was the goal
By the start of the twentieth century
Appalachians had lost their dignity
For there is freedom on
top of the mount,
as I quench my thirst
from the Niagara Falls fount.
I have seen the Rockies
and the Appalachians,
on journeys to other states
for family vacations.
Mother Nature calls the
Bald Eagle to soar,
through the wondrous valleys
of Mount Rushmore.
No sights are as marvelous
as the snow-capped heights,
of the Anchorage, Alaska
Northern Lights.
From Mount Kilimanjaro
to Mount Everest,
there is so much magnificence
filled with zest.
There’s an altitude of
fourteen thousand feet,
up the beautiful trails
to Colorado’s Pikes Peak.
There are Mountain Lions
and various Coyotes,
found hiding in the lower
altitude of Denali.
Mount Fuji holds the
species of the brutal Bear,
and you can find the
Grey Fox high up there.
No matter which mountain
you see in creation,
each will bring the most
captivating sensation.
Mountains Contest
August 14th, 2017
Fire in the Mountains
October’s crisp clean air is blowing
and as we speak we can see our breath,
a hot coal falls from Heaven’s altar
and sparks a blaze we’ll soon not forget.
One spark touches a dry limb
and sets one tree aflame,
so quickly that one becomes so many
bringing God’s light and heat here once again.
We look to the hills and mountains
and see they are red as blood,
aflame with God’s Holy power
and revival now comes in like a flood!!!
The people of large cities to are shaken
wondering why now is it happening there,
tiny so tiny communities swept into the move of His Spirit
and delivered of innumerable cares.
People from every nation traveling there
to see and taken in this awe,
stricken by God’s Holy fear and presence so real
you can only say, this truly is God.
So the Appalachians now has a new name
since revival has come back home,
yes, the Appalachians now have to say,
have become the mountains of God.
Written by: Marilyn S. Jennings
2005
Old time Appalachians deep within the hollows.
Self-sufficient, hard working, fine mountain folks
With farming, barn raising, and crafting skills,
Logging, mining and music to pleasure the ear.
Devoted to family, kin gathering they do.
Faith in the wisdom of their elders is seen.
Church going and revivals, strengthening their beliefs,
Appalachians are dignified, spirited mountain folks.
Gathering of families, generations of kin.
Folk music, old songs blended with time.
Mountain twanged voices singing out songs-
Flatfoot or clog dancing, kicking up heels,
Fiddle picking, foot stomping, hand slapping thighs,
Ballads of life's struggles, celebrations and griefs,
Brought over by immigrants generations ago.
Brings a sense of home for the young and the old.
A dedication to a friend of mine.
The Bible says "thou shalt not kill"
now proudly join the army lad, and go kill,
come back home, and follow your Bible again.
O middle class, your fathers built your homes
with union help, now disperse those union halls
and happily work for minimum wage, six days a week,
chant bribed politicians working for hidden oligarchs
reaping 100 million dollar bonuses, crowded apartments
will suffice.
O Appalachians, your once proud mountaintops now
miles of desert, debauched by profiteers, unbridled by
regulations written by lobbyists, clothed in frothing
chemicals, drowning your despair in burgeoning liquor
stores.
O beautiful blufflands, along my Mississippi,
I see you now, your royal crowns
decapitated,
your limestone sand greedily slurped by
frac-monster gargoyles wearing saville row suits,
entombed in New York skyscrapers.
O broken occupiers, etch your days in Heaven,
on your jail cell wall.
Truths, all truths, build slowly,
but truth must fight on, for your children's children
will know you tried to save our people and planet!
...we must fight on!
....we will!
The Quakers, being religiously persecuted, set sail from expatriated England;
they were the first settlers to reach the shore of New England: a free land!
Later the Puritans came and settled in other eastern, bustling colonies
seeking the same religious freedom, but their urge was stronger than dreams.
Many moved westward on foot, on horseback and on overloaded wagons...
exploring the American wilderness plundered by indigenous Indians;
they searched for grassland everywhere, to let their cattle roam and graze;
first they built wooden shacks on vast, lush prairies full of Queen Ann's Lace.
And out of this American westward expansion, came the fearless pioneers,
who sought gold mines...despite the wild cowboys causing troubles
with heavy drinking and desire for unscrupulous women, seeking money and pleasure,
who served them more whisky and lured them to a room with a demeaning measure.
Beyond the Rocky Mountains' and the Appalachians Mountains' skies,
these diligent pioneers obtained wealth with sweat and sacrifices...
changing and shaping the wild landscapes of arable land,
avoiding the drudgery of getting stuck in mud and sand.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR
Arizona has the Painted Desert
The Grand Canyon is there as well
Montana and Wyoming house Yellowstone
With beauty that weaves a spell
Wyoming hosts the Grand Tetons
Montana the Big Blue Sky
The splendor of God's Creation
Is nothing to deny
There's Pike's Peak in Colorado
We have the Appalachians and Great Smokies too
And the Black Hills of South Dakota
These all offer a breathtaking view
There are rivers like the Mississippi
And sights like Niagara Falls
Giant trees in California
That tower 300 feet tall
There's a Great Salt Lake in Utah
There's Washington's Puget Sound
There are five Great Lakes of fresh water
Where the wonders of nature abound
As we travel the great State of Georgia
We see mountains with cold, clear streams
And wildlife of every description
Often found only in dreams
So when you wake up every morning
And each night before taking your rest
Thank God for His marvelous Creation
America's Splendor is blessed
27 August 2008
For the contest Your Country 'Tis Of Thee
Sponsored by Brahn Bailey
Originally written in 2002
The rowdy party racks the August Camp.
Beer flows in one end and out the other.
The tin siding vibrates with rock.
The sound rolls “over Beethoven”
in a corrugated groove.
The heat baked, potato-skinned,
hormone riddled teens gyrate.
Lip-locked; they rub bright young bodies
across a terrain of Appalachians and delta’s.
Sweat runs like rain between dream Dean eyes
and Marilynesque breasts, luscious peaches,
down curves a roller coaster would envy
with the passenger having
no less enjoyment for the ride.
Paired they leap into the black flies night.
Paired to the hot rods roaring pistons pride.
Paired they race into the ice-cooler chill
of Megunticook Lake.
Paired and naked, clothing tossed in wheel wells;
panties antennae wire glories
Relief floods their sensuous slide
lapping the beach of desire
See the mountains all afire
Flaming Appalachians
‘Neath the pastel of October sun
Treetops all alight
Waves of carmine flame
Swaying in soft dance steps
Amidst saffron highlights
Muted in glowing orange bittersweet
The slow falling flares
Of autumns sweet inferno
Strewing about the mountainside
A blanket of dry and weary sighing
In softly murmured prayer I wonder
Through the birthing rains of spring
And the unquenchable thirst of summer
Despite it all why is it most beautiful
…A moment before dying?
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