No, but I believe that Maury County in MTN is my navel of the universe. My paternal relatives have lived and died there for eight generations. I have a series I’ve worked at over this past year. I’ll see if I can post it on my substack. “Eorthcraeft 1”
Why would you? Wendell Berry talks about belonging to places - that there is a place on the planet where we each belong and become part of. It sounds like ETN maybe that place for you. I am still in search of that place for myself, though I have lived and felt part of many spots on Earth. Since you are a poet have you written anything about ETN? If so, I'd love to read it.
This story was interesting. I haven't been back to the Smoky Mountains in what seems like geological EPOCHS so it kinda took me back. Hiking for HOURS on little - known trails ( which I WOULDN'T ATTEMPT now ) even finding a couple of caves / cavelets on the way.
I copied it and pasted it into our exchange in “The Rewind” on April 8th. It’s there for you to read. Please be honest but kind. 🙂
Thank you, Radha. I didn't see it come through, but will look for it. Can't wait :-)
And not to worry about either my honesty or my kindness. I know what writing from the heart entails! HUGS.
No, but I believe that Maury County in MTN is my navel of the universe. My paternal relatives have lived and died there for eight generations. I have a series I’ve worked at over this past year. I’ll see if I can post it on my substack. “Eorthcraeft 1”
Jena Ball
Eorthcraeft
I In the Beginning
Sun’s horn brushes soil and lovers
Breathe breath of each other
Till space between them becomes no space
And each one breathes in each other
Woman, white waist and rose-white past twilight
Breast rise, thigh fall, her sidle
Vivid in shadow, no shadow, fervent
Beneath oaks. Amid leaves and acorns.
Her hands haul the haunch of him
Upward and his horn slants into a still core
Of liquid and fire. Sable skin limned in moonlight.
They gasp on limestone stria under soil’s skin.
He rises and plunges, leaving behind him a life
At her pounding core and their lives plunge
Toward decay, through sere husks of locusts
Moulted and wrapped in tendrils of grass
Then dragged under earth’s lid, mingled
In dank air with fungus and blunt
Edges of brittle leaves, matching the motion
Of lovers. That pattern remains, a constant,
White bones and rose-white in moonlight
Pale breast and dark skin melded, blanched
In sunlight, dissolving in rain through time,
A lean geometry endures a while, ebbs, then echoes
A while, then shatters, scatters its seed wide, trusts
Time to stir another pattern of planes in this place,
There, over there, an oasis of oaks forms
Under boughs’ break, a gasp again, pattern reforms
In water and fire, brown earth and breath,
Her blonde hair brushes his drenched cheek,
Brown as though formed from this earth
Her arms and thighs swathe his sweating spine.
Each of them breathes in each other
And here lies heaven, a collision of matter
Plunged hot like beaten iron into water
Steaming, rising perdurable, molded
By impact into new forms, matter eternal
Held in the gods’ hands, gods hanging in azure air
Molding ecstasy into life,
Fixing fragrance fast in earth.
Copywrite 2020 Radha Nichole Smith
I grew up nearby in the ETN mountains. It’s difficult to think of myself as exogenous to that place.
Why would you? Wendell Berry talks about belonging to places - that there is a place on the planet where we each belong and become part of. It sounds like ETN maybe that place for you. I am still in search of that place for myself, though I have lived and felt part of many spots on Earth. Since you are a poet have you written anything about ETN? If so, I'd love to read it.
This story was interesting. I haven't been back to the Smoky Mountains in what seems like geological EPOCHS so it kinda took me back. Hiking for HOURS on little - known trails ( which I WOULDN'T ATTEMPT now ) even finding a couple of caves / cavelets on the way.
Thanks.
Thanks for reading a long Daniel. I'm having a good time learning not only about the mountains but the indigenous people who lived there.