Poems on Pisgah

On Pisgah mountain

forest thicket

chestnut picket

yield eventually

to sawyers charge

men on mountain

muddy sacred fountains

for consumer vanity

and demand

But maybe maple

for the table

is not the only choice

we have

Filtered sunlight

through pine needle skylight

rather than

dark stained wood?

Pisgah mountain

Holy mountain

even the sawyers

back then

left the seed

Pisgah mountain

developers camping

‘round your base

with easy access roads

Government provides

developers ride

on taxes

the poor pay

Developer has no need

of new growth seed

or the young sapling tree

trying to restart a stand

Yes, a token they leave

for the resulting praise

As if the severed arm

remind us the man

For holy places destroyed

we give awards

and call these men

our best

Pisgah mountain

denuded and defenseless

your red clay soil runs now

to silt streams

And the token stand

is battered and broken

by the last great storm

to funnel through your hollows

And now begins

lawsuits without end

As happy homemakers

take to battle

they demand that someone

take the responsibility

for bad choices

made

And in the end

the poor sends

tax dollars

to make happy homes again

And Pisgah mountain

Holy mountain

defile and desecration

of your secret places

will not stand

Either the poor will rise

and demand

Or else nature

plays a hand

And the consuming hordes

descending upon you

will be swept away

And then on some

distant afternoon

filtered sunlight

will dance

Upon your needled carpet

forest floor

And the last scar

of man

will be overgrown

and hidden

And His spirit

will reside

on Pisgah mountain

once again.

11/28/02