Grist for the Mill
The Hills of Appalachia

Playin' grandpa's fiddle on the front porch swing, as I feel my fingers dancin' on the strings;
I can almost hear grandma laughin' as she sings....in the Hills of Appalachia.

On that country road in the summer rain, I could drink the air like a sweet champagne,
Honeysuckle vines swarm around my brain....in the Hills of Appalachia.

We'd make syrup from the maple trees, and steal honey from the honey bees,
Go runnin' in the summer breeze....in the Hills of Appalachia.

This old fingerboard is worn and thin, and the wood remembers my grandpa's chin;
Every note I'm playin' takes me back gain....to the Hills of Appalachia.

Now the songs I play have a touch of home, and the memories linger even though I'm grown;
I play grandpa's fiddle and I'm not alone....In the Hills of Appalachia.

Playin' grandpa's fiddle on the front porch swing.....

-- Arlene Faith Kortright
Spring Breeze

The season turned, life raced on,
A Robin sang her song atop a sturdy maple
I'd proudly planted before this century came.

Southern spring breezes from the City of Trees,
Appalachian Foothills.....Cherokee Ease

-- Chris Lane
Grandma Mountain

In springtime, Appalachian mountains, luring me to their footsteps;
Vistas spread across Picasso oblivion, serenity hugs my shoulders like Grandma's shawl.

Foggy skies etch the land twixt river and bend, huge Georgia pines, hovering overlords, rise;
Sweet magnolia and snowy white dogwoods, laying their natural carpet in servitude.

Her life, pastels of love, fold after fold of sacrifice, eternal spirit that anchors the mountain;
Lifting those in remembrance, she lives, even now, at the foot of Grandma Mountain.

-- Barry Lanier
Pennsylvania

I have been in Pennsylvania, in the Monongahela and Hocking Valleys.

In the blue Susquehanna on a Saturday morning,
I saw boys playing marbles;
Spring and the hills laughed.

And in places along the Appalachian chain,
I saw steel arms handling coal and iron,
And I saw white-cauliflower faces of miners' wives,
Waiting for the men to come home from the day's work.

-- Carl Sandburg
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