Why I Love Appalachia: “Blue Ridge Weather Report”

The Appalachian Mountains stretch almost 2,000 miles from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to Central Alabama. This time of year, I’m eager for cool weather after oppressive heat.

In this glorious, but all-too-brief season, killing frost silences the nights except for the rustle of branches. Color steals across the trees, and leaves begin to drop.

I wrote an early version of this poem after relocating to the South and falling in love (again) with autumn in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which extend from Pennsylvania to Georgia and Tennessee.

Canada comes, you announce, cooling
the Blue Ridge in chlorophyll-starved
splendor, blazing sourwood and black gum,

yellowing hickories and tulip trees,
dashing maroon and russet on oaks,
firing orange across sassafras.

Umber splotches rosy dogwood leaves,
and birds snatch at candy-berry clusters
while the morning moon burns white in blue.

My face upturns to catch the sun’s glow
through lidded eyes as the wind stirs limbs,
dropping leaves, and I report dry rain.

Frost pales the trees and thins chirping,
whirring call-and-response night song.
I grieve the rasping choir without you,

look for the farmer’s geese, snowy flecks
in a browning yard, but he has sold them,
and the gate squeaks, half-open.

My next book signing takes place Thursday, November 20 (5:30-6:45 p.m.) at Cecil T’s Mercantile (7 Broad Street 30161). It includes a reading of three to four nature-themed poems inspired by the Appalachian landscape. If you’re in the neighborhood, please drop by for refreshments. The store is chock-full of vintage items, regional arts and crafts, and homemade treats, perfect for holiday gifts.

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A veteran of Time Inc. and Dotdash Meredith (People Inc.), Catherine Hamrick is the author of The Tears of Things: Poems (Madville Publishing), which includes “Blue Ridge Weather Report.”

Hamrick’s poetry has appeared in Appalachian Places, Appalachian Review, The Blue Mountain Review, The Citron Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, storySouth, and elsewhere.

If you have a friend who might enjoy these posts, freely given, please share. Many thanks for reading!