Appalachian Patria

Appalachian Intellectual. To me that means plain thinking. I am A Non Commissioned Officer in the Army Reserves. Let me say...My views expressed here are mine and not those of The U.S. Army, Army Reserve or my fellow brethren in The National Guard. This is entirely Sua Sponte. This is My Thinking. I'm single and in my mid 30's. Politicaly, I'm a Libertarian. (Again, Sua Sponte.I do not represent the Libertarian Party.)I love my native Appalachia, Rock n Roll and...I love God.

Name:
Location: Brevard, North Caroilina

I started blogging for two reasons. I was concerned about the changes to the area I live in, Southern Appalachia and I was about to go to the war. I was in Iraq in 06 and 07 and now Kuwait in 11 and 12. Blogging was a means of documenting my experiences and hoping it would help gain clarity. I don't feel that way about it any more. It's said people write blogs because they are frustrated, that's why people read them too. That makes us sound apocalyptic. Are we? Let it be said, what I say here is of my own thinking. This is entirely Sua Sponte and not an official representation of the U.S. Military or the U.S. Government as a whole.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Don't Know No Rashs...

I heard this poem on Writers Almanac this morning. It hits close to home...Literally.

The Exchange
by Ron Rash

Between Wytheville, Virginia
and the North Carolina line,
he meets a wagon headed
where he's been, seated beside
her parents a dark-eyed girl
who grips the reins in her fist,
no more than sixteen, he'd guess
as they come closer and she
doesn't look away or blush
but allows his eyes to hold
hers that moment their lives pass.
He rides into Boone at dusk,
stops at an inn where he buys
his supper, a sleepless night
thinking of fallow fields still
miles away, the girl he might
not find the like of again.
When dawn breaks he mounts his roan,
then backtracks, searches three days
hamlets and farms, any smoke
rising above the tree line
before he heads south, toward home,
the French Broad's valley where spring
unclinches the dogwood buds
as he plants the bottomland,
come night by candlelight builds
a butter churn and cradle,
cherry headboard for the bed,
forges a dougle-eagle
into a wedding ring and then
back to Virginia and spends
five weeks riding and asking
from Elk Creek to Damascas
before he finds the wagon
tethered to the hitching post
of a crossroads store, inside
the girl who smiles as if she'd
known all along his gray eyes
would search until they found her.
She asks one question, his name,
as her eyes study the gold
smoldering there between them,
the offered palm she lightens,
slips the ring on herself so
he knows right then the woman
she will be, bold enough match
for a man rash as his name.



"The Exchange" by Ron Rash from Among the Believers. © Iris Press, 2000.

I believe in Love at first sight. It's as real as lust at second glance.

The Appalachianist

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You know somethings are best left uncommented on . . . the poem takes your breath away . . . I bought a desk for my granddaughter and took it to my daughter's home to give it to Andi . . . the one born with so many difficulties . . . a hole in her heart for one . . . usually I can't get a hug from her . . . she is so independent and head strong . . . when I got ready to go . . . she came over to me and hugged me and kissed me . . . the poem in a round about way made me think about that . . . as in the poem she knew . . . and I find myself agreeing with you . . . again. Bill

7:27 AM  
Blogger Hill Billy Rave said...

Bill, I thought it was a good story, in several lights.

6:43 AM  
Blogger Rebel Fan said...

Easy to see why Rash is one of the greatest poets of our time, isn't it? At least we in the Western Carolinas know that. Interesting blog you have here.

8:10 PM  
Blogger Hill Billy Rave said...

Rebel Fan, I don't know much about him to be honest. I like poems that make a story, and being it was about the French Broad Valley...And a Man obviously attracted to a Woman it caught my ear.
An Upstate teacher? Bill (above) taught in the Midlands.

Thanks for stopping by. Do so at any time you like.

8:42 PM  

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