Longleaf, A Poem Resurrected

The nice response I recieved from my recent post about my visit to Thomasville and the Red Hills reminded me of this poem written and published earlier. It is preceeded by a half-recalled, half-imagined conversation I had with the men who worked the “piney woods” of Pebble Hill Plantation, and is offered in the style inspired by the great outdoor writer, Gene Hill of “Hill Country” fame.

                                                      Longleaf

                                                 by Joseph Kitchens

Old friend. Show me the old pictures. Tell me the old stories. Talk with me about shotguns and dogs, covey rises and missed shots. Bring your dog and we can walk a fence row. Kick up a bird or two. What books have you read about my beloved South? Did I tell you about falling off the Jekyll Island Bridge when it was under construction.. I was just a boy. Lightning finally got that old pine beside the barn. Could have killed Star, too. Haven’t ridden her in years. We still talk, though. She is a damned good listener

Red cockaded woodpeckers

Hammer red-hearted

Pines to find

The hollow center for nesting.

Rattlesnakes share

Gopher tortoise burrows with

Their indifferent hosts,

Safe below from creeping,

Man-made fire

That cleans the forest floor

And consumes pine needles

That might feed a greater flame,

Taking back what vine and bramble

Have conquered in the endless summer.

I have seen a white tail buck,

Driven to madness by deerflies,

Leap into a duck pond

And plod through lily pads,

Risking the lazy power

Of basking alligators.

But I feel safe in moonlit

Pines and look for

Darting silhouettes

Of doves at dawn

And marvel at the husks

Of molted cicadas

Hanging to the slick bark

Of an ancient sentinel,

Here I am renewed by the life around me.

Note: This poem was originally published in Sanctuary, The Interdisiplinary Arts Magazine of Reinhardt University (1917).