Appalachian Elegy Read Online Free Page B

forgotten
    remembered confederates
    fugitive desire
    past wounds heal
    bind broken hearts
    give all to glory
    beyond country flag nation
    yearning for atonement
    they bring light
    come to early morning fresh

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52.
    renegades roam here
    fugitive longing
    darker than night
    glorious black bodies
    enslaved
    with no hope of
    belonging
    to land
    in this new world
    of white freedom and flight
    some live to die
    sleep with no dreams
    some find ways
    to unravel mysteries
    threads of power and domination
    a palimpsest of greed
    they hope
    and hope
    for change
    find homeplace inside
    letting anguish bleed out
    make way for new life

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53.
    blackbirds
    come rest home
    let your dreaming
    winged flying spirits pause
    meditate
    pause your deep soul be peace
    for you can rest here
    in this green
    enchanted place
    claim sanctuary
    in these hills
    made sacred
    by native trust
    small yet mighty
    find your belonging

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54.
    burning body of love
    no lead turning into gold
    flesh only
    turning into pain and ash
    the bodies and being of old men
    coal black skin
    soft to touch
    smooth as velvet
    as kid gloves
    they once danced
    dreamed themselves
    priests and poets all
    now they sleep
    under loam
    rich and generous
    as a full heart

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55.
    take the
    hand-me-downs
    make do
    no culture of poverty
    claiming lives here
    we a people of plenty
    back then
    work hard
    know no hunger
    grow food
    sew clothing
    build shelter
    moonshine still
    wine from grape
    we a marooned
    mountain people
    backwoods souls
    we know to live on little
    to make a simple life
    away from manmade
    laws and boundaries
    spirit guides teach us
    offer always
    the promise
    of an eternal now

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56.
    star of david
    tree of life
    double wedding band
    a nine patch
    such patterns
    once shaped our destiny
    pieces of cloth
    marking a woman’s life
    sewn together scraps
    bits and pieces
    tell us life stories
    pieced by hand
    remnants of passion
    an unfulfilled desire
    sisters coming together
    making peace
    offering comfort
    ways to warm
    to open hearts

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57.
    fierce grief shadows me
    I hold to the memory
    of ongoing loss
    land stolen bodies shamed
    everywhere the stench of
    death and retribution
    all around me
    nature demands amends
    spirit guides me
    to take back the land
    make amends
    silence the cries of the lost
    the lamentations
    let them sleep forever sublime
    knowing that we
    have made a place
    that can sustain us
    a place of certainty
    and sanctuary

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58.
    earth spirit
    shout to raise
    the living dead
    each one
    hear ancestors cry
    mend the broken bones
    wild damaged ones
    earth spirit
    know our wandering
    our anguished offering
    through time
    earth spirit
    reclaim soil soul seed
    all the living green
    help us surrender
    that we may live again

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59.
    migrating birds
    come rest here
    teach us
    all life follows
    divine change
    find pattern in structure
    go true north
    follow organic spirit
    guided prophecy
    hidden among growing things
    that there may be hope
    in these hills that there be renewal
    that all living beings
    may rise up
    proclaiming pure delight
    beauty that restores
    beyond all manmade limitations
    be welcomed

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60.
    wilderness within
    wild woman
    aging crone
    wise hag
    she who holds
    mystery
    stir the cauldron
    tend the flames
    bring life to fire
    carry messages
    from the future
    a shroud of blackness
    will cover the earth
    sooted sorrow
    so deep ash will fall like rain
    heat rising
    from unseen
    burning

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61.
    lingering twilight
    all-enveloping mist
    that which is deep within us
    rising
    fugitive desire
    in these lonesome hills
    time loses meaning
    fragments of past lives
    hold hostage
    the will to nurture growth
    slaughter hope
    against all sentient green
    living beings
    offering no escape
    mountains dissolve
    as earth slides into ruin

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62.
    harsh winter wind
    again and again
    soul deep snowfall
    holding earth
    shades of black and gray
    among barren landscapes
    the mind may know
    a springtime of green coming
    still in