Sketches of Memory

Here in the coastal flatlands of Carolina
some years later
are only traces of you, Appalachia--
anecdotes, incidents, and episodes embedded 
in the sketches of memory

and now I perceive 
how you were more than region, place
or even state of mind--
but rather a constellation of human relations
meshed in a rich context of 
homestead, coal train, mountain dialect
and the hollow's morning mist

here in the flatlands of the pee dee region
some 8 years later 
the context remains a fact in present perception
but the relation is diluted

between then and now i migrated
among the towering superstructures 
of inner city;
through the affluent conversational blur 
of suburbia;
among the tiny rural markers of American civilization;
and waded in the shipwreck of theoretical logic and jargon;
seeking attachment and commitment in the 
concerns of common folk;
wondering through the wisdom of ancient eastern cultural 
traditions...

always, however
returning to your finest backdrop,
the acclivity of eastern Kentucky--
how deep
these habits from the heart.

and yet, now returning only to discover
i've spent much of my personal consciousness
trying to recapture a set of interrelationships
which no longer exist--
played out only once on the stage of reality

here now, in the solitude of backdrop
what can you teach me,
Appalachia
here in the wooded hills
here in the silence of your character--
it has taken 8 years to learn your first lesson.


1988