In the enchanting world of the wild and the kingdom of beauty a thin veil hangs between it and us.
Walk down a country path and catch a fluttering wind - the glimpse beyond is what makes life worth while.
It comes in Appalachian Mountain Country as a melody on the wind and the song is that of the Turk's Cap Prince of the Mountains, who does not sing his heart out; he sings out of his heart so beautifully. It's like his song is his only reason for being and his being is full of joy and enthusiasm and a caring for all that is great and small, bright and beautiful, wise and wonderful.
Surrounding him is the forest his brother as he nods to the fish in the creek and tries to tell us that the animals can speak. He winks at us from behind his star-freckled face and laughs with us in the sun.
With him comes an intense orange-yellow as if two
bands of the rainbow had fallen to decorate his Mother the Earth below. The locust and
crickets harmonize with his song and the grasses whisper in the breathless hush of
evening.
Fireflies flicker on and off in the air and illuminate this sweetly serene place except for the gleam in the eyes of the Azalea-pink cheeked Princess of the Mountains.
She dances in on a soft wind to join her Turk's Cap Prince of the Mountains in these everlasting hills and valleys. They encircle the land, it's flora and fauna, in a live embrace for one another and for all the kindred souls who find the light of life beyond the veil into the heart of the world to the sound of the universe.
Copyright © 1988, 1999 Barbara A. Smith and John G. Hipps. All rights reserved.
This essay was first published July 13, 1988 in the
Free-Press Courier,
Westfield, Pennsylvania.